


It's The End

by someofthissomeofthat11011



Category: Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: Character Death, Memories, strigoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-30
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-16 16:44:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 34,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/864281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/someofthissomeofthat11011/pseuds/someofthissomeofthat11011
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose is almost 65 now. While walking with Lissa, there is a strigoi attack. Rose knows she isn't going to make it this time. Her life literally flashes before her eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Attacked

I knew this was the end. Dimitri and I had lived long lives. We had always believed being a guardian was a lifelong commitment. When Dimitri turned 65, we realized that wasn't true. We were just the lucky guardians that lived to prove it. When Dimitri was 65, he retired. He was still in excellent shape, but his reflexes weren't what they used to be. I was just a month from my 65th birthday and I had honestly thought I would make it. Now I knew I wouldn't.

47 years. Dimitri and I had spent 47 years together. They were 47 years filled with happiness and love. We managed to balance our love and our duty. We were the deadliest guardians out there. We had believed our love could beat anything.

As I was surrounded by Strigoi, I knew our love could beat anything even death. I would always be with Dimitri, even if it wasn't physically. I guess I didn't realize that until I was facing death itself. I stood my ground, stake in hand. I knew I wasn't going to survive this, but I sure as hell was going to take as many Strigoi with me as possible.

We had been taking a walk. Lissa, me and two other younger guardians. I had been teasing Lissa about how pretty soon she was going to be a grandma... again. She couldn't believe her youngest girl was having a baby. Lissa had a huge family. Huge! She had nine kids. It's true that she had two sets of twins, but nine kids is a lot. Slowly but surely, Lissa was repopulating the Dragomir line.

Her youngest daughter, recently got married to an Ivashkov that had enough Dragomir blood to carry on the name. That was just a coincidence though. She truly fell head over heels in love with Ben Ivashkov. She got pregnant not long after their wedding. She's only 22 years old.

"You're getting old," I teased Lissa. "Who knows maybe you'll be a great grandmother soon."

"I'm younger than you are," Lissa said sticking her tongue out at me.

"I've spent my whole life working out though. That's like negative years," I said jokingly. "And hey at least I'm not a wrinkly old grandmother."

"I do not have wrinkles!" Lissa said as if I had sincerely offended her.

I couldn't help the laughter that erupted out of me. Wrinkles would be what she worries about. "Sure you do," I teased.

"Speaking of grandmothers," she said clearly changing the subject.

I was about to shoot out one of my typical snarky comments when I felt the nausea signifying Strigoi, the two younger guardians didn't hesitate when I told them to get her to safety. I knew they could protect her.

I quickly counted the Strigoi around me. There were seven. Seven to one. I've faced worse odds, but never without my loyal and loving husband by my side. Together Dimitri and I could face an army, but alone, I knew I wasn't going to make it.

I managed to take down two Strigoi before one had me pinned. I had gotten beaten up pretty badly. I had to have broken a rib or two and I saw black spots in my vision. Looking into the Strigoi's red-rimmed eyes, I knew they weren't going to turn me. I was too old. As I laid on my back, I literally saw my life flash before my eyes.


	2. Lissa

The first thing I remembered was the first day I was dropped off at the Academy to stay. I had been left at the Academy for days at a time before, but this was different.

My mother knelt in front of me, her face struggling to stay neutral. "This is your home now," she told me softly.

At the time, I thought she was abandoning me. I didn't realize how much it hurt her to give me up. I may have been five years old, but I was tough. I refused to cry in front of her, to let her see how hurt I was. When she went to give me a hug, I ducked under her embrace and ran. I don't know where exactly I was going, but I needed to get away from her. I ended up hiding behind a statue in the commons. It had just enough space for a five year old.

To my five year old self, being dropped off at the Academy was the worst thing that could possibly happen. It shattered my world. My mother hadn't been a prominent part of my life, but I always knew that she would come back for me at the end of the day. If it wasn't the end of the day, she would always tell me when she would be back. But this was different. She was leaving me.

One of the female guardians on the elementary campus eventually found me. She talked me out of my hiding place and brought me to my room. It was scary, having my own room at the age of five. I wouldn't have any one to go to if I had a bad dream. But, I was a badass even at five years old and I refused to let anyone see my fear.

I didn't sleep much that night and as a result, I woke up tired and groggy. It was cruel to force an innocent and tired five year old to start classes the day after their world ended, but that's exactly what I was forced to do.

I sat through my first two classes, shooting angry glares at anyone who tried to talk to me. In my third class, we were split up into pairs. I was paired with Vasilisa Dragomir, a royal moroi. She was also a goodie two-shoes. She had her textbook ready on the table and actually looked excited for the lesson. It was a little intimidating to talk to a royal, but I had it ingrained in my head that we had to be respectful to all moroi.

"Hi. I'm Rosemarie Hathaway," I told her quietly. "But if you know what's good for you, you'll call me Rose." I couldn't help but add that last part. It was my natural attitude coming out.

"I'm Vasilisa Dragomir, but please call me Lissa," she told me with a smile.

I tried not to return her smile, but I couldn't help it. Any further conversation we might have had was interrupted by our teacher. She was a middle-aged moroi and I already couldn't stand her. She handed us both pieces of paper and thick pencils. "Please write your names on the paper," she said slowly. She was treating us like we were two.

I sucked up all of my mean thoughts about her and I started to write Rose Hathaway, but I didn't get passed the H before she stopped me. "You're full name please," she said to me as if I were slow.

"Where am I ever going to have to write out Rosemarie Hathaway?" I asked her angrily. I watched Lissa struggled to write out Vasilisa. She was getting angrier and angrier with herself. I gently put my hand over hers and she stopped writing and calmed down. She sent me a grateful look.

"You must write your proper name," the teacher said, trying to keep up her happy voice. "I am your teacher and I want you to write your full names."

I pretended I thought she was only talking to me. "So now I have more than one full name?" I asked her innocently. "Which one should I use?"

"I'm not playing games here Rosemarie," she said, her happy voice officially gone.

"We're five years old and you expect us to write out 'Rosemarie Hathaway' and 'Vasilisa Dragomir'?" I asked her annoyed. By this time, we had every five year olds' undivided attention. The two guardians in the room were watching amused. They didn't think a five year old would be able to inflict much harm . "You're nothing but a fascist bastard," I shrieked throwing the heavy book on our table at her. I had heard my mother call someone a fascist bastard before, but I didn't know what it meant. I did know that having a heavy book pelted at you would hurt and I knew how to hit a moving target.

I was literally picked up by one of the guardians and carried from the room. That was the first time I met Kirova. Even back then, she looked like a vulture.

Later on during lunch, Lissa came to sit by me. "Thanks," she said softly.

"Any time," I said. Since that day, we were best friends.


	3. Pinned

The next thing I saw was the first time I pinned a novice. I was nine and I was sparring with Dean in one of my classes. It is rare that novices get to fight. Usually we practiced with dummies. Kim, the guardian supervising our match had picked both of us to spar in front of the class as an example. Dean was much bigger than I was. He was almost 5 feet and I was only 4'1". He was giant for a nine year old and I was tiny for a nine year old. I would hardly call that a fair fight.

It was hard to concentrate with so many people watching, but I pushed that aside. All I thought about was Lissa. If I won this, I would prove I could be a good guardian. Just the week before, Lissa's parents talked to me about being her guardian. They told me if I keep up my training they would love for me to be Lissa's guardian so I could protect her emotionally as well as physically. Lissa's parents treat me like I am their daughter, and they are entrusting their daughter to me. Even at nine, I knew that was a big deal.

Dean immediately went on the offensive. He threw a punch that caught my shoulder. Putting all his weight behind his punch meant that it hurt. A lot. I reacted out of instinct and aimed a kick to his stomach. I hit his stomach with a soft oomph, but he grabbed my leg before I could pull it back. He looked like I knocked the wind out of him, but he still managed to make me lose my balance. I fell to the ground on my back and hit my head. Hard. I saw black spots and I saw Dean get ready to pounce. I rolled over just in time and Dean ended up colliding with the mat.

Before he could recover, I pinned him to the ground. He struggled to get out of my grip.

He growled at me. "You can't beat me," I said to him victoriously. I knew I had won this match. This is what proved to me once and for all that I was meant to be a guardian. If I could beat a novice that was almost a foot taller than me, I could beat anything.

"What would you know? You're just a worthless girl," he said to me angrily. Without even thinking about it, I pulled my arm back and punched him in the nose. I heard the crack that indicated I broke it. Kim and another guardian quickly separated us before I could inflict any more damage. Now that I think about it, that incident might be why Dean never liked me.

I was handed off to a different guardian who escorted me to Kirova. I had been in her office so much in the past few years, I was almost comfortable with the familiarity of the room. I settled myself into my favorite arm chair. "Ms. Hathaway. Do you understand the seriousness of what you have done," I muttered under my breath, waiting for the guardian to finish filling her in.

Sure enough the moment the guardian was dismissed, Kirova turned on me. "Ms. Hathaway. Do you understand the seriousness of what you have done," Kirova asked annoyed.

"I don't think I did anything wrong. Dean and I were sparring. It's not my fault he's a suckish novice," I said grumpily.

"Ms. Hathaway, you are out of line," I said at the same time as Kirova. Her face turned red as she looked at me. "Do not mock me," she said through gritted teeth.

"It's not my fault your so damn predictable," I pointed out.

"Ms. Hathaway you have detention!" I shouted at the same time as her. She looked at me angrily. Three. Two. One. "Two detentions!"

I grinned at her. She couldn't get around it. She did the same time every time I came here. She took a deep breath and I knew what was coming next. It was her 'Ms. Hathaway, acting out isn't the only way to get attention' speech.

I wiggled around in my chair until I was totally comfortable before I completely tuned her out. I couldn't help but smile to myself. I knew that before I left her office I would have a week's worth of detentions, but I didn't care. I had proven to myself that I could be a guardian. Now, nothing could stand in my way.


	4. First Kiss

The next thing I remembered was my first kiss. I was ten years old. I was celebrating Christian with Lissa's family. All of her family friends were over and there were a lot of kids. I was the only dhampir, but Lissa's family made me feel welcome.

There were about fifteen kids my age and we snuck away from the grown-ups. We went to the study in Lissa's house and started playing truth or dare.

Most of the dares were silly things. "I dare you to lick the wall." Or "I dare you to wear your shoes on the wrong feet."

As the game progressed, things changed a little bit. One of the moroi girls turned to Lissa. I think she was eleven or twelve, but she looked so innocent. "I dare you to give each guy here a kiss," she said.

Poor Lissa. She gulped, but she wasn't about to back out of a dare. She gave each boy a kiss then quickly ran to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She only gave them a quick kiss on the lips, but it still felt dirty to her. I went to find her to comfort her. When we returned, I found out that our innocent game of truth or dare wasn't so innocent anymore. A lot of the moroi had left to go find their parents so there were only five of us left. Two boys, a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, Lissa, and me. The girl with blonde hair gave me and evil smile. "Dhampir, truth or dare," she questioned. I tried to control my anger when she called me dhampir instead of Rose. I took a deep breath to calm myself.

"Truth," I chose, not wanting to do any of the dares that had been going around. I was one of those girls that wanted to wait for the perfect moment for my first kiss.

When I chose truth, I was met with the three obnoxious moroi calling me a wimp, but I didn't back out of my decision. "When did you have your first kiss?" She asked me.

I turned bright red and looked down. "I didn't," I admitted. It's not that I cared that I hadn't had my first kiss yet, but I knew a lot of people in the room had and I didn't want to get judged.

"You didn't have your first kiss yet?" She asked in an annoying voice. "How pathetic." I already couldn't stand her. I knew it was wrong to hate a moroi, but I couldn't help myself. She was obnoxious.

I glared at her until she stopped laughing. The moroi next to her, who I could only assume was her brother looked at me. "With looks like that how have you not had your first kiss yet?" He asked me. He sounded legitimately confused.

"It just hasn't happened yet," I said with a shrug.

"I could change that baby," he said winking at me. I groaned. I should have known that's what he was after.

"No thanks. If I wanted to kiss a pig, I would go to a farm," I retorted. He apparently didn't like that very much.

"Who are you calling a pig? You're nothing but a wannabe blood whore," he spat at me.

That pissed me off to no end. Who was he to call me a blood whore? "I am not a blood whore," I said through my clenched teeth.

"Sure you are. All female dhampirs want to be a blood whore," he taunted. He slowly crawled towards me. I didn't think anything of it. I was ten. But when he touched me, I lost it.

I may be a dhampir, but I am not a piece of property. I jumped to my feet and backed away from him. "Don't touch me," I warned. He stood up as well.

"You know you like it," he said. He pushed me into the wall. "How about that kiss?" He asked.

I looked at Lissa, pleading for help. She sat in her original position, frozen in fear. I could see that she wanted to help me, but she didn't know how. The moroi boy leaned in for a kiss and I turned my head so he ended up kissing my cheek. I punched him. Hard. The moment he loosened his grasp, I kneed him in the stomach and then I ran.

I ended up hiding in the kitchen. I curled up into a ball and cried. A dhampir boy that I didn't recognize slowly approached me. "Are you okay?" He asked me quietly.

I only sobbed louder in response. He walked over to me and put a comforting arm around my shoulder. "Hey, you're alright," he said to me soothingly. He didn't know me, but he let me sob into his shirt until I cried out all my tears.

"What happened?" He asked me once I had calmed down. So I told him. His face grew angrier and angrier as I explained what had happened.

"The nerve of him," he said angrily. "Don't let him upset you. He's an arrogant asshole."

I chuckled a little. Surprisingly, this boy made me feel a lot better. "Thank you. For staying with me," I told him.

"Anything for a pretty lady like you," he said with a small wink.

I giggled. Him flirting with me wasn't like the moroi boy before. It was nice. That's when I realized how close he was sitting to me. He kept glancing down at my lips. I turned my face towards him and leaned a little closer. He pressed his lips to mine.

The kiss didn't last long, but it was sweet. I didn't feel fireworks or anything like that, but I felt safe and comfortable. I could've had a worse first kiss.


	5. Halloween

The next memory that came to me was many years later. Lissa and I were going out on Halloween. We had been on the run for over a year now. We were finally starting to relax after the psi-hound incident. We were in Clackamas, Oregon now and we were watching the little kids walk around in cute costumes and go trick or treating.

Lissa sighed sadly. It has been a long time since we've had the opportunity to do anything fun. "Let's go," I said spur of the moment. We couldn't just sit around withering away. We could get captured any day and I am determined to live it up as much as possible.

Lissa turned her bright green eyes on me. They were filled with confusion. "What?" She asked uncertainly.

I didn't answer her. Instead I held out my hand for her and helped her stand up. "We're going shopping," I told her. She still looked confused, but she didn't argue.

I lead her to a halloween store and her eyes brightened with excitement. I personally thought it would be hilarious if we bought a vampire costume, but Lissa seemed legitimately insulted by the human's inaccurate portrayal of vampires. We were torn between going as a witch or going as a fairy. In the end after much debate, we decided on being fairies. We both bought the fairy costumes and some glitter then made our way back to the apartment we were currently living in.

We quickly got dressed and styled one another's hair. We put glitter everywhere so we quite literally sparkled in the lighting. When our looks were complete, one of our roommates took a picture of the two of us. Even though we were sixteen, we still decided to go trick or treating. We both got mountains of candy.

We knew we couldn't go out to a party, it would be too risky. Instead, we stayed inside and threw our own party. I don't think I've ever eaten so much candy in my life.

While we were lying on our floor, we started to talk. "Thank you Rose," Lissa said in a soft voice.

"For what?" I asked her confused.

"For this," she said, motioning to us in our costumes and the mountain of candy in between us. "Since we've left the Academy… Actually since before the accident, we haven't been able to have any real fun. This was nice. This was fun."

I grinned at her. "After everything we've been through, I think we deserve a little fun," I told her with a smile. "I wish I could do more for you Liss."

"Don't be like that Rose. You got me out of St. Vladimir's when I felt like someone was watching me. You've kept me safe every second we've been away. Yet you still manage to do stuff like this. You shouldn't have to do anymore for me," she pointed out.

Despite her assurances, I couldn't help but worry. I knew I took her away from the life she should be living. I deprived her of her other friends.

The least I could do to make it up to her was have one night dedicated to some normality. So while we sat on our floor, devouring our body weight in chocolate, I let my defenses down. "Let's go to a party," I suggested. One of our neighbors was having a halloween party that Lissa and I had been invited to. I had initially told Lissa we couldn't go, but if I was going to let my defenses down, I might as do it thoroughly.

Don't get me wrong, I still had every intention of keeping an eye out and making sure that Lissa didn't come to any harm, but I wasn't going to keep her in a box tonight.

"Are you sure?" Lissa asked me. I could see the excitement brewing in her eyes.

"When in Rome," I said with a shrug.

"I don't think the romans went to parties on halloween Rose," Lissa said with a giggle.

"They totally did. The romans needed to party it up to distract themselves from their hideous clothing," I joked.

Lissa didn't need any further prodding. She touched up our make-up and made some adjustments to our hair before she deemed us satisfactory. We made our way to our neighbor's room. The best part of this was that we didn't even need to leave our building. Our neighbor lived on the floor above us.

When we arrived, Lissa's excitement peaked. She looked at all of the halloween decorations. Our neighbor welcomed us and offered us a beer. Lissa looked at me, asking for permission. I nodded. I would be able to handle a drunk Lissa. If possible, her excitement grew. As the alcohol kicked in, she walked around and socialized. I refused any alcohol offered to me and I followed Lissa as if I were her shadow.

I was happy to see Lissa having a good time for once. This was the first time we've done something fun since we left the Academy. I had hoped it wouldn't be the last.


	6. Stolen Kisses

Some memories moved by in a blur. Being captured, returning to St. Vladimir's, everything with Victor Dashkov, Spokane. Everything slowed down after the Spokane incident. It was about three weeks after Spokane and it was the first time Dimitri and I started up training again. He went extremely easy on me as if he were afraid I was going to break.

After cutting practice short by almost thirty minutes, my anger got the better of me. I had been pushing Mason's death aside, refusing to let myself accept it. The grief from his death, the stress of school, and now Dimitri treating me like this put me over the edge.

"I'm not made of glass Dimitri!" I screamed. "I'm not going to break if we spar or if I do three sets when lifting."

"I know you're not going to break Roza," Dimitri said softly.

"Then why are you treating me like this? Why did you cut practice short by thirty minutes? Why do you stop sparring when you realize you are about to pin me or stake me? Why aren't you training me like you did before?" I asked him, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Oh Roza," Dimitri said softly. He lifted one of his hands and wiped away my tears. "When Ivan died, I threw myself into my training. I pushed myself so hard I nearly died of exhaustion. It was the only thing I could do to make the pain go away," he explained with a faraway look in his eyes. "I didn't want that to be you. It's not going to help you to push away the pain. You need to accept it and deal with it and you haven't done that yet."

I know he was just trying to help, but I couldn't do anything about my out of control emotions. I took a step back from him. "Don't you tell me what I need to do Dimitri Belikov," I warned him. "I have dealt with Mason's death." My voice caught in my throat when I mentioned Mason's name and it took all of my strength not to cry.

"That's what I'm talking about," Dimitri said taking a step towards me. "You are fighting tears right now. You are not over Mason's death."

"I am over it. I'm fine. I just want everything to go back to normal," I pleaded.

A pained look came across Dimitri's features. "Things will never go back to normal," he said sadly.

That's when I snapped. I lunged for Dimitri and tackled him to the ground. He wasn't expecting my attack. I put all of my fury behind my attack. I didn't even try to stop my tears this time.

"Is it too much to ask for to be treated normally? To not be the girl that got her best friend killed?" I cried as I struggled to pin him.

He recovered and flipped us over. "You didn't get your best friend killed. There was nothing you could do about it," Dimitri rationalized. I struggled against his hold, but I knew I wasn't going to get out of it.

"Damn you and your stupid Zen lessons. It's my fault he's dead," I sobbed as the fight left me. I slumped on the ground exhausted. "I killed my best friend."

Dimitri loosened his grip on me and I took that opportunity to curl into a ball. "Roza," he said softly.

I pulled the hood of my jacket up so he wouldn't be able to look at me. I retreated inside myself. I didn't want him to see me like this. Suddenly, I needed to get out of there. I jumped to my feet and sprinted towards the exit. I wasn't fast enough. Dimitri stopped me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

I tried to back away from him, but my back hit the wall. He slowly pulled my hood down so he could look at me.

I saw the pain in his eyes as he took in my appearance. I knew I must have looked like a mess. He withdrew his hands and I immediately slid down the wall. I gripped my hair in my hands and looked down at the ground. I couldn't stop my tears.

Dimitri sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulder. Instinctively, I leaned into his chest. He let me sob into his shirt as he rubbed soothing circles into my back. He whispered to me in Russian. I may not have known what he was saying, but it helped me calm down.

When my tears were gone, I turned to Dimitri. "Thank you," I whispered, looking up at him. That's when I noticed how close we were. It would be so, so easy to close the distance between our lips. We sat there looking into each other's eyes before I saw the decision in his eyes. I closed my eyes as he pressed his lips to mine. I don't know how long we kissed for, but when we broke apart, we were both gasping for breath. Neither of us made any attempt to move from our tangled positions.

"I'm sorry Roza," Dimitri said sadly.

"I'm not," I insisted. Pressing my luck, I leaned up and kissed him. The kiss was short, but sweet.

"Roza, you know we can't," Dimitri said sadly.

I nodded sadly. "I know," I admitted. I shifted slightly so my head was resting on his shoulder. He wrapped both of his arms around me, protecting me in his embrace.

Too soon we would have to leave behind the fairy tale where I could enjoy the closeness between us. Too soon, we would have to go back to the reality where I was his student and he was my mentor. But for now, I reveled in the comfortable feeling I got being in his arms.


	7. A Conversation

The next thing I remembered was one of my conversations with Dimitri. It was a couple of days after I was put on half-time for my field experience. Dimitri and I were doing our cool down stretches after our practice.

Or rather, I was stretching, Dimitri was staring at the wall. "Everything alright Comrade?" I asked him curiously.

"Yeah. I guess I'm just a little distracted," he admitted.

My jaw practically hit the floor. "Mr. Badass Guardian is distracted?" I asked him.

The corners of his mouth twitched as if he was trying to suppress a smile. "Even guardians get distracted sometimes," he told me. His guardian mask dropped and he looked a little vulnerable.

"Dimitri, what's wrong?" I asked him anxiously.

"Nothing's wrong," he told me. "Concentrate on your cool down stretches." He snapped back into his mentor role.

"Here's the weird thing Comrade. I can talk and stretch all at the same time," I told him snarkily. I couldn't help it. He was there staring at a wall and he told me I needed to concentrate? He rolled his eyes at me, but didn't say anything. I stopped stretching. I crossed my arms in front of my chest and just stared at him.

He looked at me and sighed. "Rose," he said warningly. "You need to stretch."

I looked at him stubbornly. "I stretch you talk?" I offered.

He sighed at me. "Fine," he said. I resumed my stretching. "It's my older sister. I just found out that she's pregnant. I guess I'm just a little annoyed that I wasn't told earlier. She's apparently a couple of months along."

I looked at him confused. I knew he didn't talk to his family a lot, so I don't know why he is so upset about this. I could also tell he wasn't telling me the whole truth. "That doesn't seem that bad," I told him confused.

"Well, my other sister already has two kids. She had a baby a couple of months ago. It's a lot to have two babies in a house, particularly when there is no father figure," he explained with a distant look in his eyes. "My eldest sister, the one that had two kids? She is in a relationship with a dhampir man. He treats those kids well from what I've heard, but he'll never be able to be a real father to them. He won't unless he marries her at least. And I don't see that happening."

"Why not?" I asked him cautiously. I wasn't too sure I wanted to hear the answer.

"They are both dhampirs. He's a guardian. He only sees her when he has vacation time which, as you know, isn't often," he told me. "You know how much it is looked down upon for dhampirs to be in a relationship. Much less get married."

I looked down at the floor. I knew I shouldn't have asked that question. I had never thought of marriage before. I never thought I would find a man I would want to be with for the rest of my life. "So you never plan on getting married?" I asked, feigning disinterest. I would probably kick myself for asking that, but I would deal with the repercussions later.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dimitri study me intently. I saw his expression soften slightly. "Roza," he whispered to me. I stiffened slightly. He only used that nickname when he was feeling particularly affectionate towards me. I didn't want him to see how much it affected me. "You know we can't."

I looked away from him so he couldn't see the pained expression on my face. "I know," I said in what I hoped was a strong voice. It sounded hollow to me. "I wasn't talking about us," I told him. "If you ever found a dhampir or a moroi your age and fell in love with them. Or if you changed your mind and took up Tasha's offer, would you marry them?" I couldn't bear the thought of him marrying another woman, but I needed to know.

He frowned slightly. I knew he could see through my lies. To my surprise, he answered me. "That won't happen," he told me softly. "And if it did, I probably wouldn't marry. It's not a practical thing for a guardian to do."

I nodded. "I think I'm done stretching," I told him as I stood up and sprinted from the gym.

He stopped me before I got to the door. "Rose," he said warningly, putting a firm hand on the door so I couldn't open it. I stopped in front of the door, but refused to turn around and face him. "Rose, look at me."

Déjà vu. I couldn't help but remember when my mother had given me a black eye. He had said the same thing then. Just like then, I couldn't ignore the direct order of my mentor. I turned slowly, still not looking up at him.

He cupped my chin and forced me to look up at him. "What prompted that question?" He asked me softly.

"I was just curious," I lied. I dropped my head again. I knew he would see that I was lying, but I wasn't going to tell him the truth. Because quite honestly, I didn't know why I cared. I knew we would never be able to get married. Not when we had an obligation to Lissa, but still. I didn't want him to fall for anyone else. As greedy as it sounds, I didn't want to watch him fall for someone else and have the perfect future. I didn't want to watch him get married and have children with some mystery moroi.

Understanding dawned on his features. "Rose," he hesitated. "I'm never going to marry some dhampir or moroi, because my heart is taken." He put his hand on the side of my face tentatively.

I looked up at him. I desperately needed to believe his words. He searched my face briefly and I saw his amazing self-control break. He pressed his lips to mine. I don't know how much time passed, but I was lost in the bliss of the moment. I wished we could be like this always, but I knew it wasn't practical or possible. I just knew with every moment I spent with him, I loved him a little more.


	8. Tasha

My memories passed by in a blur again. I saw my time in the cabin with Dimitri. I saw Dimitri as a Strigoi. I saw the steps I took to restore him. I saw myself getting framed for the murder of the queen. I remembered everyone breaking me out of prison and our quest to find Jill. I remembered Tasha shooting me and losing the bond. I saw Lissa becoming queen.

When my memories slowed down, it was two days before Tasha was going to be executed. I was going down the steps to the prison she was being held in. I didn't want to go see her, but Dimitri did. He needed to understand why Tasha would do this. I wanted to know that too, so I told him I was going to go with him. He wasn't happy about it, but he knew I was too stubborn to take no for an answer.

That's how I found myself slowly descending the ominous stairs to the Court cells. How ironic that Tasha was in the very cell that housed Dimitri right after he had been restored and me when I had been accused of killing the queen.

I gulped when I saw her. She was a mess. She looked deranged and wild. I clutched Dimitri's hand in mine, cutting off the circulation in his hand. When she looked up at us, she smiled. She didn't even try to hide her fangs. In that moment, she looked scary.

She glanced at me then turned all of her attention to Dimitri. "Dimka," she said happily. "I was wondering when you would visit me."

Dimitri put up his guardian mask, but I could still see the pain and betrayal in his eyes. "Natasha," he said with a nod.

"Now Dimka, is that any way to talk to an old friend?" Tasha asked, pretending to be hurt.

Dimitri's mask faltered as anger set in. "Calm down Dimitri," I whispered to him. I was surprised at his anger, but at the same time, I understood it. Tasha had almost killed me and he was ridiculously protective of me.

He clutched my hand tighter, but I didn't care. I would regain use of my hand… someday. But if it meant Dimitri wasn't going to kill Tasha, it would be worth it. He took a deep breath and slipped back on his guardian mask.

Tasha watched our interaction with angry eyes. "Why?" She asked bitterly.

"Why what?" Dimitri asked in a neutral tone.

"Why would you choose her?" Tasha asked.

"Because I love her," he said simply.

"But I love you Dimka. She can't give you what you want. I can! So why would you choose her?" She asked angrily.

"You can't give me what I want Tasha," Dimitri said to her.

"You could have a family with me. You could have a baby. She can never give that to you. She's done nothing but cause you hell. You probably wouldn't have been turned into a Strigoi if you hadn't been distracted by her. She didn't even try to help you. Yet you turn a blonde eye to all of her faults. I don't understand Dimka," Tasha said.

I saw red. I pushed aside the family thing. I would think about that later. All of my focus was on what she had said about me not even trying to help him. I dropped Dimitri's hand and took a step towards her. It's a good thing Dimitri knows me so well, because he wrapped his arms around me to restrain me just as I was about to pounce. "You listen to me you scar-faced bitch. Don't you dare blame me for Dimitri getting turned! There was nothing I could have done. If it was up to me I would have ran back into that cave, but I couldn't. And to say I didn't try to help him? I fucking dropped out of school to go hunt down the man I loved to kill him. Don't you fucking dare say that I didn't do anything to help him," I shrieked as I struggled in Dimitri's hold. No matter how much I struggled, I couldn't break his grip. "I was the one that pursued a ridiculous mission to find out if the impossible was possible. I was the one that broke Victor Dashkov out of prison so we could talk to his insane half-brother. I did everything to save him except stab him with the stake. What did you do Tasha? Sat around and mourned Dimitri's death? Yet you have the nerve to blame me for something that was out of everyone's control?" My voice was low and deadly. I gave up trying to get out of Dimitri's arms. I just focused on Tasha.

Tasha rolled her eyes at me. "You're right little Ms. Perfect," she said sarcastically. "In the end, it still wasn't enough. Why don't you take a hint? Dimka shunned you for a reason. He will never be happy with you."

"Enough Tasha," Dimitri interceded. "We didn't come here to talk about me and Rose."

"Came here for me Dimka?" Tasha asked, batting her eyelashes. Dimitri's grip on me tightened as if he knew I was seconds away from lunging towards Tasha again.

"We came here to find out why you did it? Why did you kill the queen?" He asked, his voice barely concealing his anger. "Why did you frame Rose?" His voice broke on the last question.

"She was the only thing in my way," Tasha said, turning her eyes to me. She was looking at me like I was the grossest bug in the world.

Neither Dimitri nor I needed to ask what she was talking about. I was the only thing in the way of her and Dimitri. "You were right," Dimitri whispered to me. I knew he was going to try to blame himself for this. He didn't want to believe Tasha had framed me so she could have a shot with him.

I turned to him. "Let's go," I suggested. He nodded at me and kept his eyes on me as we left the prison. Tasha was shouting something at us, but we weren't listening. We were taking strength from one another and just walking away.

The moment we were outside the prison, I stepped in front of Dimitri so he wouldn't have a choice but to look at me. "It's not your fault," I told him.

"It is. I didn't realize what Tasha was capable of," he said sadly.

"No one did. If the Alchemist hadn't told us it was Tasha, I never would have guessed," I told him sincerely. "Especially not with how she was pretending to help us. It's not your fault."

"But I just feel like if I had been more obvious that I couldn't return her feelings, maybe she would have given up," he said sadly.

"Dimitri, none of that would have worked. Tasha was a psycho bitch. There's nothing you could have done. It's not your fault you have such godly looks," I told him.

He chuckled briefly. "Godly looks huh?" He asked amused.

"Like you didn't know that already," I teased, wrapping my arms around his waist.

He grinned at me. He leaned down and brought his lips to mine. I knew the weeks to follow would be difficult. Tasha's betrayal was ingrained in us all, but together we would get through it.


	9. Leaving

My memories flew by again. Tasha's execution. The little funeral we had for her to give Christian closure. The attacks on Jill and Lissa. The attack at dinner when Jill died. Bringing Jill somewhere safe. When my memories slowed down it was a few months after Tasha was executed.

Dimitri and I were woken up at an ungodly hour because Dimitri's phone was going off. Me, not being a morning person, AT ALL, pushed Dimitri out of bed to get the phone and shoved a pillow over my head.

I could still hear what was going on, but it was muffled. I heard Dimitri hit the ground. He hadn't been expecting me to literally push him out of bed. He groaned and got up to answer his phone. I glanced at the alarm clock from under my pillow. No wonder even Dimitri was too tired to function. We had only been asleep for about two hours.

After a moment, I heard Dimitri answer the phone. "Hello?" He asked, unable to keep the sleepiness from his voice. After a moment of some unknown caller speaking, I heard Dimitri gasp. I sat up and looked at him concerned. "I… What?" He asked. He looked wide awake and more importantly than that he looked completely shocked. He was frozen.

"Dimitri?" I asked cautiously. "Dimitri what's wrong?" He stayed frozen. Now I was panicking. I stood up and slowly walked towards him. I gently placed my hand on his arm. My touch snapped him out of his haze.

"I'm sorry. Yes, I'm still here," he said into the phone. He paused for another moment. "Of course I understand." His face fell as he listened to what came next. "I…" He hesitated and looked at me. "Yes, I understand. It's my duty. Four a.m. is fine with me." Then he hung up the phone.

I glanced at the clock. It was 11:00 a.m. which means Dimitri had several hours until whatever he needed to do. Somehow, I got the feeling I was going to be upset by whatever it is. "Dimitri? Who was that?" I asked him. I was shocked to see he suddenly had tears in his eyes.

I gently pushed him towards the bed. He sat down on the edge of it obediently. "Dimitri, what's wrong?" I asked him anxiously.

He shook his head to clear it. "I can never be a strigoi again," he whispered to me.

"I know. We won't let it happen a second time," I promised him. It was something I had to reassure him of all the time. He often woke with nightmares that he had been turned again.

Dimitri shook his head again. "No Roza, you don't understand," he told me. His face was suddenly lit up with a huge smile. "I can't be turned into a Strigoi again. If a Strigoi tries to turn me, it will kill me. It won't turn me."

My jaw dropped. "What?" I asked confused. Surely I must have misheard him.

"Yeah," he said, still in shock. "They found out in Palm Springs. You remember Lee?" I nodded my head, unable to speak. "He used to be a Strigoi, but someone restored him. He was been trying to turn Strigoi again, but he couldn't do it himself. Sydney and Adrian were in a house and Lee invited two Strigoi over. They tried to turn him, but they couldn't."

I stared at Dimitri and I felt a huge smile come across my face. "You can never be turned again?" I asked him to confirm.

"Never," he told me. I crushed my lips to him. All those nights we were kept awake because one of us had nightmares of him turning Strigoi again evaporated. It wasn't a possibility.

Too soon, he pulled back. "Rose, there's something else," he told me reluctantly. I knew the bad news was coming. I looked at him expectantly. "I have to go to Palm Springs with Sonya. They want to run some tests to see if there's something in our blood that can be replicated."

I looked at him shocked. My first reaction was to feel betrayed, but I quickly shoved that aside. This was huge for Dimitri. I understood why he felt like he needed to do this. To him, it would feel like redemption. Maybe because he was turned, he would be able to protect all moroi. Prevent them from willingly or forcibly being turned Strigoi. "How long?" I asked him.

He looked at me sadly. "Probably a couple of months," he reluctantly told me.

I took a deep breath. Calm down Rose. I got up before I could do something stupid like cry. "Well, we better start packing. I'd say pack an extra two stakes. You don't know if you might lose one or something. You're going to need a lot of clothes to be away for a couple of months. I just did the wash the other day so you have plenty of guardian uniforms. Also, you should bring some casual lounging around the house clothes. And work-out clothes. Can't have you getting fat and out of shape while you're gone," I rambled. It was like my mouth had a mind of its own, but I couldn't make myself stop, because if I did, I would have to accept that Dimitri was leaving. That just as I got him back, he was leaving me again.

Dimitri's hands wrapped around my arms as I was leafing through the clothes in our closet. "Roza," he said softly.

"What Dimitri?" I asked, unable to face him. He spun me around and looked shocked at what he saw. His hand came to my cheek and wiped away tears I didn't know I had cried.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to leave you. I wish you could come with me, but we both know you can't," he said sadly.

"Dimitri, I understand. You have to do this," I said. That's when the reality hit me. I started sobbing into his chest.

He wrapped his arms around me. "I'm sorry Roza. I'm so, so sorry," he told me.

When I had finished crying, we spent hours wrapped in each other's arms. We didn't know how long he was going to be gone and we were determined to make the best of our time together.

When it was time for him to go, I went with him. He was traveling fairly light. Only one suitcase and one carry on. When we got to the airport, he gave me one final kiss and walked away. I stared at his disappearing figure, trying to tell myself he would be okay.

Before I had a chance to miss him he was running back to me. I met him halfway and jumped into his arms. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a consuming kiss. "I love you Roza," he told me.

"I love you too Dimitri," I said through the tears in my eyes. He gently put me down and gave me one final kiss. He kissed my forehead then went to board his plane. This was real. He was leaving.


	10. Phone Call

The time Dimitri was gone flew by in my memory. They were the longest months of my life in reality so I was grateful I didn't have to relive them. The only thing that brought me comfort was the phone calls that we had. We called each other almost every day, but it still wasn't enough for me.

There is one phone call I will never forget.

Our conversation started off differently than usual. Usually I'll call Dimitri. "Roza," Dimitri says into the phone. That's all he says. No hello, no how are you. Just that one word. That one word is more than enough. Just that one word makes me smile so much.

"Comrade," I say back. I may not be able to see him, but I know he is smiling on the other end.

"How are you?" He asks me.

"I'm fine. How are you?" I asked him same as always.

"Better now that I'm talking to you," he answers.

But this conversation didn't go like that. This conversation was different.

He was the one to call me this time. That was odd, because usually I'm the one to call him. It's not that he doesn't want to call me, but he never knows when I may be out guarding Lissa, so it's easier if I call him when I'm off duty.

This time when he called me, I had just gotten off of duty so I was still in the room with Lissa and Christian. I answered the phone like I usually do. "Comrade," I said into the phone.

"Hi Roza," he said back. He sounded a little breathless. Just that one word alerted me to the fact that something was going on. But I couldn't tell if it was good or bad.

"What's wrong?" I asked, instantly on alert. Lissa and Christian looked up at me confused.

"Nothing's wrong Roza. Why would you think something was wrong?" He asked defensively. This wasn't good.

"Dimitri," I warned.

He sighed into the phone. "Fine. Do you remember that night when you called and our phone call was cut short?" He asked me.

I frowned and thought back. Then I realized what he was talking about. "The men with the sword?" I asked. "Is Sonya okay? Is Jill? Did they come back? What's going on? Dimitri answer my questions!" Lissa was silently laughing in the background.

"I would if you would give me a minute to answer them," he told me amused. I waited patiently or as patiently as I could. "Sonya was taken."

"What?" I screamed into the phone. Lissa and Christian jumped and looked at me concerned. "Is she okay? Who took her? Was it the men with the sword? Was Sydney with her this time?"

"Roza calm down. We found her and we got her back," he told me.

I took a deep breath. "Dimitri, what happened?" I asked him.

"Will you not interrupt me?" He asked me.

"Yes, I will listen patiently," I promised him.

"That's likely," Christian said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes at him. When Lissa wasn't looking, I gave him the finger.

"Okay. So two days ago, Sonya was taken by the same men that attacked her and Sydney. The men had records of her previously being a strigoi. That's why they took her. Sydney somehow found out where she was being held and we recovered her. Everyone's okay," he told me.

"Why do I get the feeling that there was a huge fight that you're not telling me about?" I asked him.

He sighed into the phone. "There may have been a bit of a scuffle," he admitted.

"Dimitri," I warned.

"Okay. There was a fight. Adrian, Sydney and Sonya got caught up with it as well as me, Eddie and some other guardians. But we all got out okay. A little scrapes and bruised, but we were okay," he told me.

I sighed. "Are you sure you're okay?" I asked him. This wouldn't be the first time he downgraded his injuries.

"Roza, I promise I am okay," he told me.

I sighed again, knowing I wouldn't be happy until I could see for myself that he was okay. "Fine. I believe you," I told him reluctantly.

"No you don't," he told me amused. "You just know there's nothing you can do while you're so far away from me."

"Yeah," I agreed sadly.

"I'm coming home," he told me.

I froze and stared at the phone in my hand. "You're… what?" I asked him. Surely I heard him wrong.

"I'm coming home," he repeated. I could hear the smile in his voice.

"YOU'RE COMING HOME?" I screeched. "When?"

He was laughing on the other end of the phone. "We're in the airport right now. We weren't getting anywhere in our studies. We figured we could keep running some of the tests here so there was no need to stay in Palm Springs," he explained.

"You're in the airport? How long til you land?" I asked him.

"It's a three hour flight," he told me. "We're about to board the plane. I have to go. I love you." He hung up before I could respond.

"I'll see you soon," I promised even though he couldn't hear me.

I didn't even say goodbye to Lissa and Christian as I raced from their room. Three hours wasn't that long.


	11. He's Back

I was pacing around the airport, waiting for Dimitri's plane to get in. Every couple of seconds, I would look at the sky as if his plane would magically appear in the sky. It was late. The sun was shining brightly and I was exhausted. I had had a long day with Lissa. I'm lucky I made the thirty minute drive to the airport Dimitri is landing in.

I decided to sit down on the bench in the airport. I pushed through the throngs of people until I found an empty seat. I was going to pass out if I stayed on my feet any longer. The only thing keeping me going right now was the knowledge that Dimitri was on his way home.

The longer I sat there, the heavier my eyelids felt. I just couldn't keep them open any longer. I was only going to rest my eyes for a moment.

The next thing I know, someone was kissing me. I was about to punch them when I smelt their aftershave. Instead of punching them, I wrapped my arms around their neck.

"Sleeping Beauty awakens," he said.

My eyes flew open. He was kneeling down in front of the bench I had fallen asleep on. "You need to think of something more creative to say when I wake up Comrade," I teased. He had said the same thing to me when I woke up after getting shot.

He rolled his eyes. "I've missed you Roza," he said to me.

"I've missed you too Dimitri," I told him. I leaned towards him and wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him. He slowly stood up. I wrapped my legs around his waist so I wouldn't have to break the kiss.

"You are never leaving again," I warned him. "I don't care if it's for something that would eliminate all Strigoi. Never again."

"But if it's something that could eliminate all strigoi, if I go to that, I could be ensuring we never have to be separated again," he pointed out.

"I'll think about that later," I told him. "Now shut up and kiss me."

He hungrily pressed his lips to mine. I was sure some of the humans were making faces at us, but I couldn't make myself care. To me, Dimitri and I were the only people in the world right now.

"I'm never going to leave you again," he told me. "Never. I promise. Not even if it means the end of the Strigoi. I won't… I can't do it again."

"I love you Dimitri," I told him, looking into his chocolate brown eyes. "I never want to be apart from you. At least not that long."

"I love you too Roza," he told me. "I will never ever be gone that long again."

He finally put me down. I couldn't bear to put any distance between us so I tightly wrapped both of my arms around his waist. He put one of his arms around my waist. For the first time, I noticed Sonya standing a couple feet away from me and Dimitri.

It was bad that I hadn't noticed her earlier, but in my defense I was a little distracted. Dimitri managed to carry his suitcase and her suitcase and keep his arm around me. He is truly talented. He would not let me drive back, which may have been justified considering I wouldn't be walking if I didn't have him to support me. That didn't mean I didn't spend the entire trip trying to make him feel guilty.

When we got back, Mikhail was waiting in the parking garage. I guess Sonya had told him when we would be back. His face broke out into a huge smile and I could tell he forgot Dimitri and I were here.

Dimitri and I snuck out of the garage while they were having their reunion. We got back to our apartment faster than we ever had before.

The second the door was closed behind us, Dimitri pulled me close to him and started to kiss me. I pulled his shirt off and he did the same to mine. We left a trail of clothes from our front door to our bedroom. When we finally made it to our bed, I felt whole. I felt complete.


	12. St. Vlads

The next thing I remembered was two weeks after Dimitri came back from Palm Springs.

We drove up to the gate surrounding St. Vladimir's. Emil was on duty and he welcomed us with a huge smile. "About time you two got together," he said cheekily.

My jaw dropped. "I… what?" I asked uncertainly. Dimitri looked at Emil horrified.

Emil chuckled and shook his head. We hadn't expected people to know about us. I knew Alberta knew, but Dimitri figured it would come as a surprise to everyone else. Guess not.

We drove through the gate in a confused silence. "Do you think everyone knows about us?" I asked him, not sure if I really wanted to hear the answer.

Dimitri shrugged. "It's possible, but how? Alberta would never betray our trust like that. Even if it were news at court, she's not one for gossip," Dimitri said.

"And we were careful when we were at school. Maybe they figured it out the same way Alberta did?" I asked.

Dimitri shook his head. "Alberta figured it out because she's just that intuitive. She saw both of us more than most of the other guardians and it was probably enough to put the pieces together," he pointed out as he pulled into a parking spot near the guardian office.

I groaned and got out of the car. I held Dimitri's hand as we walked into the building. "I guess we'll just have to ask Alberta," I suggested.

"If anyone knows, it would be Alberta," he pointed out.

"Actually I think it would be the guardians that miraculously know that we were together," I said with a smile.

Dimitri chuckled. "Alright then, you can go up to one of the guardians and ask then," he said jokingly.

"You know, for such a tough, badass guardian, you really are a baby," I teased poking him.

"Are you sure you want to go there Roza?" He asked. I could see the twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

"Definitely," I said smiling at him.

That's when he lunged at me. We 'fought' like this all the time. Dimitri tried to tickle me while I tried to pin him using my feminine charm. We were fighting for about ten minutes before I dragged him to the ground. I didn't manage to pin him and he flipped us over so he was sitting on top of me. I couldn't very well let him win. "Dimitri," I said softly, batting my eyelids. His eyes filled with lust and his grip on me loosened. I managed to roll over so I was straddling his waist.

I leaned down and grinned at him. "I win," I told him, giving him a soft kiss. Someone started clapping, alerting us to the first time that we had an audience. We both jumped to our feet and looked at the floor. Both of us were a little red faced, both from our fight and the embarrassment of getting caught. We held hands, unwilling to lose contact with one another.

"Children. Fighting is a great misdemeanor on campus," I heard Alberta say. Amusement was evident in her voice.

"But Alberta," I whined at the same time that Dimitri said, "But Guardian Petrov." We glanced at each other and grinned then turned to Alberta.

To my surprise, Alberta pulled me into a hug. "It's good to see you Rose," she told me sincerely. She turned to Dimitri uneasily. "I couldn't believe it."

Dimitri grinned at her, but I could see the shadows in his eyes. They disappeared when Alberta gave him a quick hug. She looked like she was holding back tears. "It's good to have you back Belikov," she said in a gruff voice.

"It's good to be back," Dimitri said, squeezing my hand tighter.

Alberta nodded and then was back to business. "I have some work to do, but you are free to explore the campus. Classes just started, so you're welcome to observe any of the classes. You'll have to go see Kirova about your living arrangements. I believe she arranged separate rooms for you two," she told us.

I rolled my eyes. "That was unnecessary. I'll just stay with Dimitri," I said.

"Figures. Rules never stopped you before," she said with a small smile. She turned to go, but I stopped her.

"Oh Alberta?" I asked. She turned to me expectantly. "How does every guardian on campus seem to know about us?" I asked uncertainly.

"You're actions were pretty obvious Rose," Alberta pointed out. Dimitri looked at her confused, but I understood. My break down after Dimitri was turned.

"We were obvious?" Dimitri asked a little upset.

I shook my head at him. "Goodbye Alberta," I said to her. She nodded and then walked away.

Dimitri turned to me. "What was that about?" He asked me confused.

"I was obvious. You were very discreet, but I wasn't," I said with a shrug. Why oh why was Kirova's office so far away from the guardian office? I hoped he would drop it.

That was too much to ask for though. "Rose," Dimitri warned. He used his 'stop avoiding the question' voice.

I groaned. "Why can't you just drop it?" I asked annoyed.

"Because I can see that it's bothering you. You're eyes haven't looked this haunted since I captured you as a Stri… Oh," he said, his eyes widening in surprise. "After I was changed?" He asked.

I nodded, unable to look into his eyes. I knew he forgave himself for everything he did as a Strigoi, but it still hurt him to think about it. I didn't want to bring up painful memories.

He put his hand under my chin and lifted my head up so I had to look him in the eyes. It would be childish, even for me to close my eyes. "Roza, tell me what happened," he urged softly.

"I tried to go back for you. I screamed and fought to go after you, but Stan and my mother stopped me. I knew that people had been killed, but all I could think about was you," I explained in a small voice. "After… After you were turned, I had a breakdown. I went outside the wards to talk to Mason. I had to know if it was true. When Mason confirmed you were Strigoi, I broke. I fell to the ground and started crying. I couldn't make myself move. Someone eventually found me. I don't even remember who. For the next several days, if I heard your name, I would run out of a room. I couldn't bear it. One of the guardians caught me trying to break into your room. I told them at the time that I needed a book you had taken away from me during training. At the time I thought they believed me, but I guess they just felt bad for me. They let me in, but I was too late. Your room was empty. As if you never were there. The only thing that wasn't changed was your sheets. I slept in your bed that night, wishing you were still here. That's when I started planning. My birthday was only four days away and I knew I would have to go after you." My voice caught in my throat. I will not start crying. Dimitri pulled me into a hug and kissed my forehead.

"Roza. It's okay. It's okay," he whispered soothingly. I held him tightly, still fighting back tears. "I'm here now. That's all that matters."

"I'm sorry. It's my fault they know," I sobbed, no longer able to hold back my tears.

"I don't care that they know. In fact, if I hadn't been turned, they would have found out anyway, because the first thing I would have done would have been to find you and give you a big kiss," he told me. I could hear the truth in his words.

"Really?" I asked him.

"Roza, I love you," he told me. "Never doubt that."

I gave him a small smile and nodded. He took my hand and we continued walking towards Kirova's office.

When we got there, Kirova didn't say anything to us, she just handed us keys to our separate accommodations. I gave her my room key back before we walked out of her office. I could hear her calling me, but I ignored her and followed Dimitri to our room. Once we had gotten settled in, I turned to Dimitri.

"Third period is about to start," I said with a small smile. "Do you think it's possible to get kicked out of Stan's class even if I'm not a student?"

Dimitri groaned, but I could see the amusement in his eyes. "Why do I feel like you're going to test that theory?" He asked.

"Because I am of course. Coming Comrade?" I asked him. He groaned and followed me.

As it turns out, Stan can kick me out of his class even though I'm no longer his student. I definitely made those novices' day.


	13. The Proposal

Dimitri and I spent our last day visiting St. Vladimir's walking around, remembering all the times we shared.

We went to the gym and sat there for hours, talking about how we fell in love fighting on those mats. We spent a particularly long time in the cabin, reliving history. We even spent a couple minutes in the chapel, remembering when he helped me clean the chapel or when he held me when I was scared about going crazy like Anna.

It was a fun day. I would have loved to spend all day in his arms talking about our time at St. Vladimirs, but Alberta had different plans for me. Dimitri and I were supposed to meet her in the gym to help her train one of the novices. I didn't know why they would have training so late in the day, but I wasn't going to insult Alberta's methods. We made our way back to the room we were staying in and I got changed.

"I'm going to go now. I can't have your tardiness ruining my perfect record," Dimitri called.

"Why do you assume I'm going to be late?" I asked slightly annoyed

"If it were up to you, we would never be on time for anything," Dimitri said.

I sighed. "I'm not always late," I argued from the bathroom where I was brushing my hair.

"Yes you are. I'll see you in a couple of minutes," he promised.

"Fine, be a bad boyfriend," I said. He didn't say anything back, so I honestly though he left. I was surprised when I felt warm arms wrap around me.

"I love you Roza, but I can't be late. Alberta said she wanted me to help set some stuff up," he said.

I turned to him, my anger immediately vanishing. He really did feel guilty about leaving me. "Go," I said with a sigh. He gave me a quick passionate kiss and then left.

I finished brushing my hair and then pulled it up into a messy bun. I threw on my workout clothes and started to walk to the gym. I was only fifteen minutes late, which wasn't that bad for me.

To my surprise, the lights were off in the gym when I got there. They snapped on and I saw Dimitri walk towards me. I grinned at him. "Hey Comrade. Where's Alberta?" I asked, looking around. That's when I noticed the rose petals on the floor. I read what they spelt and gasped, turning back to Dimitri. But he wasn't standing where I left him, no he was kneeling.

"Roza. I have loved you since that first day we met. Even though we tried to deny it, our love was too strong. You helped me through some of the hardest times of my life. You make me want to be a better person, a better man, and a better guardian. I have never met someone who inspires me as much as you do. I will love you forever. When I came back from Palm Springs, I promised you I would never leave you again. This is me keeping that promise. We've had so many firsts here at St. Vladimir's. The first time we fell in love, the first time we kissed, the first time we gave into our love. St. Vladimir's houses so many of our happy memories. And now, it will hopefully hold another one. Rosemarie Hathaway, I promise to love you forever. Will you marry me?" Dimitri asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

I looked at him as tears filled up his eyes. "Yes," I said after my shock wore off. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Of course I'll marry you!" I didn't wait for him to get to his feet before I threw my arms around him. "I love you so much!" I sobbed.

Dimitri sat up, never loosening his hug. We broke apart several moments later so he could put the ring on my finger. "How? How did you set this up?" I asked.

"Easy. Alberta told me I was an idiot for not proposing. I told her I was planning on proposing before we leave. I was just going to take you out to dinner and ask you, but she told me that wasn't good enough. She said she would lure you to the gym and I could do the rest," he explained to me.

I leaned up to kiss him. "It didn't matter how you did it. You're proposal would have been perfect if you proposed to me in the cafeteria. I love you and that's all that matters," I told him sincerely.

"I love you too Roza," he told me, leaning down to kiss me. This was a kiss we didn't break.


	14. The Belikovs

All the stuff we did to plan our wedding flew by in my memory. About a month before the wedding when we were figuring out our guest list, something dawned on me.

"Hey Comrade?" I asked him cautiously.

He looked up at me confused. "Yes?" He asked.

"We should probably go see your family," I told him, watching his reaction.

He looked at me nervously. "You think?" He asked.

I nodded. "They deserve to know you're… um… back. I feel like that might be a better conversation to have in person," I told him. "Hopefully Viktoria will have forgiven me." I said the last part low so he wouldn't hear me.

He looked at me confused. "What happened with Viktoria?" He asked me.

I sighed. We had avoided talking about his Strigoi days for the most part. He knows I went to visit his family, but he doesn't know the specifics. "Just a little argument," I told him with a shrug. It really wasn't my place to tell him what had happened. "But stay on topic. I talked to Lissa and Christian already. Lissa finished her semester two weeks ago so she said we can go anytime. She can give us about a week off. I also… talked to Abe."

His face hardened at Abe's name. Abe was less than supportive of Dimitri's decision to ask me to marry him. "What did Abe say?" He asked.

"He's willing to pay for us to fly to Russia so we don't have to wait until we've saved enough to go. He also told me to tell you he's sorry. He may have overreacted," I told him.

"May have overreacted? Roza, he threw fireballs at me! And he expects me to forgive him by buying me plane tickets? I don't think so," Dimitri told me.

"His words, not mine. If you think I haven't already given him hell for what he did, you are sadly mistaken," I told him annoyed.

"I'm sorry Rose. You're right. I should have known better," he said apologetically. He took a deep breath. "When do we leave?"

"Two days," I told him. "He's going to have a rental car waiting at an airport in Omsk."

He nodded. "Baia is only about two hours away from Omsk. Are we going to tell my family that we're coming or just surprise them?" He asked me.

"Surprise them," I told him with a mischievous grin.

He nodded. We spent the next two days packing and caught a flight at 10:00 in the morning, which meant it was nighttime for the moroi world. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper when we got on the plane. I slept for a majority of the flight and the entire drive.

Before I knew it, we were standing in front of the Belikov's front door. We had to have stood there for at least thirty minutes before I had the courage to knock on the door.

When I finally did, Olena answered the door. I was the first thing she noticed and she pulled me into a giant hug. "Rose! I didn't think we were ever going to see you again. One day, you just weren't here anymore! I'm so happy to see you!" She told me in a rush.

When she pulled back, I looked at her nervously. "Olena," I said hesitantly. "I brought someone to see you."

That's when she first noticed Dimitri. Her eyes widened with fear and she took a step back. I saw pain in Dimitri's expression. "Rose?" She asked terrified.

"Look up Olena. The suns out. He's not what you think he is," I told her.

She looked up at the sun then back at Dimitri. She looked at the color of his skin and she focused her sight on his eyes. Her eyes widened with surprise when she noticed that his eyes were their normal chocolate brown color. There was no red ring around them.

"Dimka?" She asked uncertainly.

"Mom," he said softly.

Olena burst into tears and threw her arms around him. "Oh Dimka. I thought you were strigoi," she sobbed. "How is this possible?"

"I was strigoi," he told her. "I'd rather wait to explain so I'll only have to tell the story once to everyone."

"Of course," she agreed. "I'm so happy your back Dimka!" She was still holding him in her death grip, but Dimitri didn't seem to mind.

"I'm happy to be back," he told her sincerely.

When she finally broke their embrace, she turned to me. "Thank you. I don't know how, but I know you had something to do with this," she said to me. She gave me a quick hug. "Oh, where are my manners? Come in, come in." We walked into the house. "Everyone's in the kitchen. I had just finished making breakfast when you arrived."

We followed her into the kitchen... or at least I followed her. Dimitri waited in the living room. My presence was met with gasps. I had vanished out of nowhere, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they were shocked to see me.

I looked around the kitchen. Sonya was feeding a baby girl. Somehow, when I pictured this reunion, I pictured her pregnant. I shouldn't have though. Of course she wouldn't still be pregnant. She probably had her baby almost a year ago.

Viktoria was pointedly avoiding eye contact with me. That's not a good sign. Karolina and Paul were staring at me. At least Karolina managed to keep her mouth closed. Paul's jaw was practically on the table.

"Rose?" Karolina asked uncertainly.

I grinned and nodded at her. "The one and only," I told her.

"It's good to see you. Where have you been? Where did you go?" She asked.

I internally groaned. I should have known Karolina would be the one to ask all the questions. "I had something I needed to do," I told them honestly. "I… um… brought someone back with me," I told them. Dimitri walked in.

Gasps were heard throughout the kitchen. Viktoria looked terrified. Sonya jumped to her feet and held her baby close to her side. Karolina shifted herself so she was in front of Paul and Zoya. Yeva just kept eating her breakfast, not looking surprised at all. "Guys. He's a dhampir. Look at him," I urged them.

Karolina was the first to realize he was really a dhampir. She ran to him and almost knocked him over when she hugged him. Sonya and Viktoria were soon to follow. Cries of 'Dimka' rang out throughout the kitchen.

Zoya looked over from where she was sitting in her high chair. She looked like she was almost two years old. "Ucle Dika," she said in a baby voice. She looked so confused.

I went over to her and picked her up. "Do you remember me?" I asked her.

She shook her head, looking at me scared. "I'm Rose," I told her. "I'm Uncle Dimka's girlfriend."

She smile at me. "Ucle Dika is him?" She asked.

I nodded at her. "Yes, the man over there is your uncle. Do you want to go meet him?" I asked her. If she didn't remember me, she definitely didn't remember Dimitri. I don't think he ever met her.

She looked at me scared. "He a giyant," she told me, shaking her head.

I had to hold in my chuckle. "I know he may look big and scary, but can I tell you a secret?" I asked her. She nodded. "He's a big softy. Like a giant teddy bear."

She giggled. "I wan ta hug da teddy beaw," she told me.

I grinned at her. "Let's go then," I told her.

I went over to where Dimitri was surrounded by his sisters. "Hey Comrade. There's someone that want to meet you," I told him with a grin.

He looked over at me confused. Then his eyes landed on Zoya. I've never seen the expression that crossed across his face. He immediately switched to a baby voice.

"Who is this?" He asked.

"I Zoya. I two," she told him with a grin.

"Hi Zoya. I'm your uncle Dimka," he told her.

"Auntie Rosie say you a teddy beaw," Zoya told him.

Dimitri chuckled and looked at me. He reached out his arms and held Zoya. "What do you think?" He asked you.

"I tink you a pewson," she told him as she snuggled into his arms.

He kissed her forehead. "I am a person," he agreed.

"Dimka? How is this possible?" Karolina asked him confused.

He sighed. "You may want to take a seat," he told them. He handed Zoya to me then he took a deep breath and started telling them the story. He started with how he became a Strigoi. When he got to his Strigoi days, he told them about how I hunted him down and almost killed him.

Then it was my turn to speak. I told them about staging the prison break for Victor Dashkov. I told them about meeting Robert Doru and finding out that it was possible to restore Strigoi. And then I told them about how Lissa stabbed him with the spirit filled stake while Christian surrounded him with fire. "And wahla, Dimitri is a dhampir again," I finished.

When we had finished talking, we were met with blank stares. "I don't know whether to believe you or think that you came up with some grand story," Sonya told us.

I chuckled. "I promise you, it is 100% true," I told her. "I could understand if you find it difficult to believe." I let Zoya wrap her hand around my finger.

"It's just so unbelie…" Karolina started to say. She cut herself off as her eyes focused on something. I looked towards where her gaze was and landed on my engagement ring. She looked up at me surprised. "You're engaged? I thought you were with Dimka…"

I looked at Dimitri. I would let him make this announcement. "She is," he told them.

"Surprise," I said with a grin.

"YOU'RE ENGAGED?" Olena shrieked.

We both nodded. Sonya, Karolina, and Olena congratulated us to no end. The tension between me and Viktoria was very obvious. I don't know if she's avoiding me because she's still mad at me or because she feels bad for what she said. I can't tell, but regardless it's obvious to everyone.

Once everyone had finished congratulating us, Dimitri and I finally got to eat breakfast.

It was weird being on a human schedule. I'm so used to being asleep when the sun is up.

After breakfast, Dimitri put his foot down. "Viktoria, can I talk to you in the living room?" He asked her. His expression made it very obvious he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Sure," Viktoria said reluctantly.

Dimitri grabbed my hand and dragged me along with him. Once we were in the living room, Dimitri turned to us. "What is going on? This seems like more than a little argument," he told us. I internally groaned.

Viktoria turned to me surprised. "You didn't tell him?" She asked.

I shook my head. "It wasn't my place to tell him," I explained with a shrug.

"Guys I'm still here and I want to know what's going on," Dimitri insisted.

I looked at the floor. "I'm sorry," Viktoria said softly. I looked up at he surprised. "I didn't mean what I said. I was just upset. I realize how much you must love him to do everything you did for him."

"I never blamed you for it," I told her honestly.

"Thank you," she told me sincerely. She turned to Dimitri. "I was with this moroi. On Easter, well I went with him to… to Sunriser."

Dimitri stiffened at the mention of that name. I assumed that's the name of the warehouse building Viktoria went to with Rolan. "What were you doing there?" Dimitri hissed.

"I really thought I loved Rolan," she explained. "I don't know how, but Rose got these two guys to tell him never to see me again. I found out two weeks later during one of my classes that he had been cheating on me with another dhampir. He got her pregnant. She dropped out of school when she found out. But anyway, I was going to do, probably exactly what you're thinking, but I didn't."

Dimitri's face hardened. I took his hand and squeezed it gently. "Calm down," I whispered to him.

"What happened after that?" Dimitri asked through gritted teeth.

"I haven't been with anyone since," Viktoria promised.

Dimitri nodded and stood up. He stormed off to his bedroom. I gave him a moment before I followed him.

When I got to his room, he was pacing angrily. "Dimitri, you need to calm down," I warned him. "Nothing happened and Viktoria clearly learned from her mistake."

He groaned from his frustration. I went over to him and put one of my hands on his cheek. He covered my hand in one of his. "I don't know how to thank you. You stopped her from making the biggest mistake of her life," he told me.

I looked right back at him. "You don't need to thank me," I told him seriously. "I don't want this to ruin your whole trip. Spend the next four days with your family. They've spent over a year thinking you were a strigoi or dead. They deserve to spend this time with you, without you moping over something out of your control."

"Thank you Roza," he told me. "I love you."

"I love you too," I told him. "Now get out there and talk to your family!"

"I think they can wait a couple of minutes," he told me.

"What else are you planning on doing?" I asked obliviously.

He pulled me close to him. "Lots of things," he said. He pressed his lips to mine.

"You're right. They can wait a few minutes," I quickly agreed.


	15. Wedding Bells

The rest of our stay in Russia as well as the days we spent planning our wedding passed in a blur. When my memories slowed down, it was the night before the wedding.

Lissa and Mia were dragging me to god knows where. They insisted I was going to have fun tonight. Christian and Eddie did the same for Dimitri.

We were in our apartment. Dimitri was waiting for Christian and Eddie to come get him. "Please don't get drunk," I requested.

Dimitri looked at me like I was nuts. "I don't think Eddie would let me get drunk even if I wanted him to," he pointed out.

I grinned at him. Eddie and Jill had flown back for this weekend so they could be in the wedding. Jill was being heavily protected, but Eddie was free to roam around. He was taking his role as one of the groomsmen very seriously.

Christian, the best man, not so much. "It's not Eddie I'm worried about," I pointed out. "You have no idea what Christian is capable of."

He rolled his eyes at me. "I've been guarding him for a very long time. I think I know what he's capable of," he retorted.

I sighed. "Just no alcohol and no strippers, please," I begged.

"I promise no alcohol," he agreed. "And if there are strippers, I'll close my eyes."

I giggled. I knew he meant it. We heard knocking at the door. I groaned. "I love you," I told him. I leaned up for a kiss.

We broke apart too soon and Dimitri left with Eddie and Christian. I was left to wallow in loneliness until Lissa and Mia came to kidnap me… I mean take me out.

They came about thirty minutes after Dimitri left. They took me to a club that I honestly think they enjoyed more than I did. I spent my night in a booth sulking while they were off drinking and having a good time. They got pretty drunk and we stumbled back to my apartment. I let them stay over, because I knew Dimitri wouldn't be returning tonight.

I knew they would be sporting a pretty bad hangover the next morning. I was grateful Jill didn't go out with us. At least one of my bridesmaids would be functional.

I was woken up early the next morning by Lissa. You would never know that she had an awful hangover from the way she was bustling about, ordering everyone around. But I knew she had to be hungover. She drank so much.

Mia looked pretty awful, but after manicures, pedicures, and massages, she looked good as new. After our day out, we ended up back at Lissa's.

Mia, Lissa, and Jill got their hair styled similarly and slipped into their bridesmaid dresses. I got into my wedding dress and Lissa masterfully did my hair. She put a blue clip in my hair. "Something blue," she told me. "Your dress is new."

She fumbled around over some of the boxes on her dresser until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out a necklace. It was a silver chain with a diamond heart at the end. It was beautiful. "Something borrowed. Just need something old."

She looked through a couple of more boxes before she found something. It was a bracelet. It had little diamond flowers on a white chain. "This used to be my grandmother's," she told me. "It's very old." She fastened it around my wrist.

"You're ready!" She declared. As if on cue, my mother and father entered into the room.

"Oh Rosemarie! You look beautiful," my mother told me.

"Thanks mom," I told her appreciatively.

"It's time. Are you ready?" She asked me.

"I'm ready," I told her sincerely.

She grinned at me and helped me to the car that would take me to the court chapel. Once we were there, the bridesmaids and groomsmen lined up. Christian stood with Lissa, Mikhail stood with Mia, and Eddie stood with Jill. They started their procession and I gripped my father's arm tightly.

This was it, I was getting married. When it was my turn to walk down the aisle, everyone stood up. I knew they were smiling at me, but I couldn't pay attention to them. My sole focus was the man standing before me.

I walked towards him in a trance. Abe placed my hand in his and everything else in the world disappeared. There was nothing but me and Dimitri.

Suddenly, Dimitri was squeezing my hand. The whole church was silent and I could practically feel everyone's gaze burning holes into my back. Dimitri looked amused.

"I do?" I guessed. He nodded slightly so I would know that I had said the right thing. Dimitri said his 'I do,' and the priest announced us man and wife.

Dimitri kissed me a little longer than was appropriate for a wedding, but I didn't care. When we broke apart, we were met with loud applause.

This was it. We finally got married.


	16. 21st Birthday

My honeymoon flew by in a blur. Well, it wasn't really a honeymoon. We spent two days holed up in our apartment. The world could have ended and we wouldn't have known. Lissa and Christian's engagement also flew by. The next time my memories slowed down, it was a little less than two years after I got married.

It was my 21st birthday. Dimitri and I were going out with Lissa and Christian. We weren't going out with them as their guardians, but as their friends.

"You are going to get drunk Rose. I don't care how responsible you think you are. Tonight, you are not a guardian and I am not a queen. We are two friends that are going to get wasted on your 21st birthday," she warned me.

I grinned at her. "I think I can live with that," I told her honestly. In truth I hadn't had alcohol since my wedding, so I was looking forward to this. I had earlier gotten Dimitri to promise he would drink a little tonight as part of the celebrations. I had never seen Dimitri drunk before. This was going to be fun.

Everyone got ready in our apartment. We made the boys wait in the living room while me and Lissa got ready in our bedroom. I was wearing a tight black dress. It was very similar to the one I wore the night of Victor's lust charm. I remember how much Dimitri like it and when I saw it, I had to get it.

When we finally left my room, Dimitri's eyes practically popped out of his head. I'm sure Christian had a similar reaction to Lissa, but I wasn't paying attention to him. I was paying attention to the 6'7" hot Russian that crossed the room in two steps to pull me into a hug.

"Happy birthday," he told me.

I giggled. "You already wished me a happy birthday," I reminded him.

"I know, but now we're actually going to go out now. I figured it was appropriate to wish you another happy birthday," he told me with a huge smile on his face.

"Well thank you," I said with a grin. I reached up and pressed my lips to his.

Too soon, Lissa interrupted. "You guys can do this later. Let's go!" She insisted. I think Lissa may have been more excited for this than me and Dimitri. As queen, fun really wasn't on the agenda so she had been looking forward to my birthday for weeks. It doesn't help that she's a junior in college. Junior level courses are pretty difficult. Luckily though, my birthday always falls during spring break, so she doesn't have to worry about rushing home to do homework.

She was standing at the door, tapping her foot impatiently. I rolled my eyes at her. "Calm down Liss. The club will still let you in if we get there five minutes after it opens," I told her.

"You don't know that," she said, slightly annoyed.

"Liss, you're the queen. They'd let you in even if it was after closing," I pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. "Let's go!" She said again. "You don't turn 21 every day. You're wasting precious celebration time."

"I don't know why you're making such a big deal about this," I told her grumpily while I put on my jacket.

"You're 21! You can legally drink!" She squealed.

"Like that matters to anyone. I've been able to drink since before I graduated," I pointed out.

"Yes but now it's legal. You're not breaking the law anymore," she pointed out.

"Of all the laws I've broken, this is the one you were worried about?" I asked her amused.

"You haven't broken that many laws," Lissa retorted.

I raised my eyebrows. "I've killed, broken someone out of prison, stolen, assisted someone who was stealing," I said, glancing at Dimitri with a smile. "I've aided a felon, broken out of prison myself, incapacitated guardians, broken you out of the Academy, and had a relationship with my teacher. Oh and I've driven without a license. Yet you're worried about my underage drinking?"

Lissa looked at me amused. "Glad we understand each other. I'm just looking out for your criminal record," she told me.

"You know Liss, if you're so worried about my criminal record, we should just not go. Then I won't have to add providing alcohol to minors to my record," I told her amused. I had no intention of staying in tonight. I just loved to mess with Lissa.

Lissa rolled her eyes. "I'm the queen. Who's going to say anything about me drinking underage? Besides, my birthday is in a couple of months," she pointed out. "Now let's go!" She ordered.

"You didn't make this big of a deal when Christian turned 21," I protested.

"I was able to give Christian something different for his birthday," Lissa pointed out.

I put my hands over my ears. "I did not need to hear that," I told her, making a face.

She giggled. "Let's go. You're intentionally stalling right now," she pouted.

I grinned at her. "Okay," I agreed following her out the door. I had Dimitri's arm firmly clasped in my hand.

We arrived at the club less than five minutes after it opened and just like I predicted, we didn't have a problem getting in once Lissa told them we were with her.

Dimitri and I attracted a lot of stares as we entered the club. You'd think people would be used to us by now, but no. We're still 'that dhampir couple.' I stopped caring a long time ago, but I know it still bothers him when people ask me if I really married a strigoi. I would always try to respond appropriately, but every time, Dimitri would stop me. He apparently didn't think punching someone was the appropriate reaction.

After we had been married a couple of months, most people lost interest, but there were still a couple of asshole morois that didn't like the idea of dhampirs being together. It's not like Dimitri and I ever let our relationship get in the way of our duty. Just because we are dhampirs doesn't mean we don't deserve happiness.

I knew we were going to have problems when a moroi with slicked back black hair started checking me out the second I entered the club. I tried to ignore him. Tonight was my birthday. I didn't want anything to ruin it. I lead Dimitri over to the bar. Unfortunately, the black haired moroi followed me.

When I had taken my seat by Dimitri, the moroi sat on my other side. "Ditch the dhampir. Come with me. I can show you a good time," the moroi told me, flashing me a smile.

Did he really just say that? He must not know who me and Dimitri are. "No thanks. I'm happy where I am," I told him annoyed. I turned my back to him so I was facing Dimitri.

He put his hand on my shoulder and turned me so I was facing him. "Come on," he told me, in what he probably thought was a seductive voice. To me, it sounded dumb. "Why would you want to hang around with a lowly dhampir?"

He put his hand on my thigh. I pushed his hand off of me and stood up angrily. "Dimitri is not some lowly dhampir!" I told him. "He is my-"

"Dimitri? The strigoi?" He asked, cutting me off.

"He's not strigoi," I said in a dangerous voice. I took a step towards him, my hands clenched into fists.

He took a step towards me, trailing his hand down my arm. He was either really stupid, or was looking for trouble. "You know you want me," he purred.

I had to fight the bile that rose in my throat. Before I could punch him, he was being held up against the wall by a very tall, very pissed off Russian. "I think my wife made it very clear that she doesn't want anything to do with you," he said in a calm, scary voice. Several people turned to watch the confrontation.

The moroi visibly gulped. "I didn't hear her protesting," he told Dimitri, trying not to look frightened.

"Then someone needs to get their ears checked," I muttered under my breath.

"Maybe you're not enough for her," he said loudly.

Suddenly the moroi caught on fire. Dimitri loosened his hold on him. As you might imagine, a moroi on fire attracted a lot of attention, more than we already had. I think the entire club was now staring at us. "Stay away from my wife," he warned the moroi.

I sighed. "Christian, stop," I said loudly. I had no idea where Christian was hiding, but I would know his fire handiwork anywhere.

Christian chuckled and stepped out from the crowd. The flames immediately vanished. "Just defending your honor Rosie," he told me amused.

I rolled my eyes and took a seat at the bar as if nothing had happened. Dimitri sat down next to me. "You look like you could use a drink," I told him.

Several shots of Russian vodka and a mysterious alcohol Lissa insisted was amazing later, I could barely remember my name. "Hey Comrade," I said loudly as we were walking back to our apartment. My arms were linked through one of his arms and one of Lissa's arms. Lissa's other arm was linked through Christian's.

"Yes Roza?" He slurred. Dimitri was drunk. Not as drunk as me, but still pretty drunk.

"Guess what!" I told him.

"What?" He asked.

"I told you to… to guess," I told him.

"Um… I don't know. I don't have a guess. What?" He asked.

"You do know though," I giggled. "You do know."

"But I can't figure it out, so will you tell me?" He asked.

"Okay. I'll tell you, but you have to come close," I told him.

He put his ear by my lips. "YOU'RE RUSSIAN!" I screamed. "DO YOU HEAR THAT EVERYONE? DIMITRI BELIKOV IS RUSSIAN!" I broke my hold from him and started spinning in circle across the street. I don't think I've ever been this drunk before.

"Yes Roza, I am Russian," Dimitri agreed rubbing his hand over his ear.

He looked so hot doing that. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist.

"Hey Liss!" I yelled.

"Yes Rose?" She asked. She was just as drunk as I was.

"Can I tell you a secret?" I asked.

"Of course Rose," she said, nodding her head seriously.

I giggled. "You look serious," I told her, unable to control my giggling. I turned to Dimitri. "What the fuck was in the Russian vodka. I don't giggle."

Dimitri chuckled. "You may have had a little too much to drink," he told me.

I shrugged. "Nothing you can do about it now. The alcohol isn't in a bottle anymore. It's inside of me," I told him, giggling more.

"Was that you're secret Rose?" Lissa asked me. She was also giggling.

I shook my head. "Nooooooooope," I told her.

Then what's your secret?" She asked.

"Dimitri's hot," I told her giggling.

"I agree," she said laughing.

I tightened my grip on him. "He's mine!" I warned her. "You can't have him." I heard Dimitri chuckle.

"I don't want him," she assured me. "I have Christian."

"But you said he was hot," I pointed out.

"He is. He's hotter than Christian. Don't tell him I said that," Lissa told me. I could feel Dimitri's silent laughter. They made his stomach shake. "I love Christian, just not for his looks."

I started laughing hysterically. "You just called Christian ugly," I gasped out.

"No, I just said he wasn't good looking," Lissa said giggling.

We kept laughing the entire way home. Needless to say, it was quite the memorable birthday.


	17. Lissa's Getting Married

My memories picked up again, coming to a stop over a year later. It was after Lissa had graduated from college. It was the day of Lissa and Christian's wedding. They were finally getting married.

We were waiting outside the chapel. Or rather, me, Dimitri, and Adrian were waiting outside the chapel. Talk about awkward. Lissa was the queen, so there was a huge turnout for her wedding. There were giant TVs fastened to the outside of the church so everyone that didn't know Lissa well enough to be inside the church could see the ceremony. Lissa was currently being hidden in one of the rooms in the chapel. She wasn't going to come out until the ceremony was about to start. Both she and Christian had decided they wanted to keep their wedding party small. Meaning a maid of honor and a best man and no one else. Because Lissa didn't have a father, she asked Adrian to walk her down the aisle. I had been okay with Lissa's arrangement until now. Suddenly I wished Lissa had wanted a huge wedding party. Because since Christian was waiting at the end of the aisle and Lissa was waiting for the ceremony to start, it was just the three of us.

This left Dimitri, Adrian, and me in a very awkward position. I had barely spoken to Adrian since I got shot. He was avoiding me and quite frankly, I was avoiding him. I hated seeing the flicker of pain in his eyes every time he saw me.

I knew Adrian had tried to be with Sydney, but it didn't work out. Her beliefs about the moroi were too deeply ingrained in her. I truly believe that she loves Adrian, but she will not allow herself to accept in. I had hoped that since Adrian had found love he would have realized that I was right when I said he would find someone he loved more than me; however, it seemed to have the opposite effect. He turned colder towards me, only addressing me as Guardian Hathaway. He refused to call me Guardian Belikov even though that's how everyone else addresses me.

What do you say to the man you cheated on? The minutes dragged by as I struggled to think of something to say. I was spared having to make conversation by Jill. Jill would be walking down the aisle alone right before Lissa. For royals, it was tradition for all immediate family to walk down the aisle right before the bride. Unfortunately, Lissa only had one family member which meant Jill would have to make the walk alone. Lissa had tried to get the council to agree to let me walk down with Jill. I was practically her sister anyway, but the council went as far as to tell Lissa they would ban me from the wedding. Lissa didn't take that well, but she grudgingly agreed that I would just stick to being her maid of honor. When Jill waved us inside, I breathed a sigh of relief. The ceremony would be starting soon.

Finally, Lissa came out. I gave Lissa a quick hug before the doors to the chapel opened. I linked my arm through Dimitri's and we began to walk down the aisle. I was holding a hug bouquet of pale purple roses that matched the glittery purple of my bridesmaid dress. Dimitri was wearing a black suit with a black bowtie. I never realized how hot Dimitri could look in a bowtie. I may have to make him wear one more often.

Because Lissa only had one bridesmaid, her wedding march didn't start until we were at the end of the aisle. She gave everyone a few seconds to stand up and then she started walking down the aisle. Jill was walking a couple of steps ahead of her.

She looked beautiful. She had refused the normal white dress that royalty get married in. I believe her exact words were, 'White is meant for purity. I sure as hell did not wait for my wedding day to become impure.' I couldn't hold in my laughter when she had said that and I was met with a serious lecture from Hans. Luckily, my best friend is the queen so she made sure I didn't get in any serious trouble.

Instead of going with the traditional white dress, Lissa chose a strapless off white dress. It was like Cinderella's dress. She had her hair down, falling in curls down her back. Overall, she looked absolutely amazing.

She and Adrian made their way down the aisle. Lissa was absolutely glowing as she looked at Christian. She looked at him as if he were the only thing making her move forward, which he probably was. And Christian, well I had never seen Christian so happy before.

I was happy for them. Adrian handed Lissa to Christian, and I did my best to pay attention to the ceremony. Dimitri wasn't helping. How was I supposed to pay attention to the bride and the groom when there was an extremely hot Russian standing only a couple of feet away from me?

After several minutes of trying to pay attention, I gave up and met Dimitri's gaze. I was really happy that Lissa and Christian were getting married, but I didn't really think I needed to pay attention until the 'I do's'. That's the only important part anyway, right?

When it came time for Lissa to say I do, I tore my gaze from Dimitri and gave Lissa the attention she deserves.

She and Christian kissed far longer than necessary. I 'accidentally' threw a flower at them so they would stop. It didn't work. When they finally broke apart, we began our procession out of the church.

Unfortunately, we knew everyone would want to see the queen after she got married, so the procession was extremely long and tiring. Dimitri and I didn't mind, but Christian and Lissa were exhausted by the end of it.

Once we finally got to the reception hall, Lissa and Christian sat down for a while to relax. They had their first dance and dutifully shoved cake into each other's faces. When it was finally time for the toasts, Dimitri decided to go first.

"Christian, I have known you for several years. If you had told me six years ago when I first was transferred to St. Vladimir's that I would be guarding you now, I would have told you that you were crazy. But I couldn't be more pleased with this turn of events. Somewhere, somehow, our guardian-moroi relationship changed. We became friends. I am happy for you man. I can't picture anyone better for you than Lissa," Dimitri said with a grin on his face. "And I'm glad that this marriage settled a dispute we have been having." Christian looked at Dimitri confused, well everyone did really. I had no idea where he was going with this. "After four years of guarding you, you finally figured out who the best man was."

Everyone laughed and Christian shook his head. The best part was it wasn't even a lie. Dimitri and Christian both had huge man complexes and were constantly arguing over who had more skill. How Christian could ever think he could beat Dimitri is beyond me, but that doesn't stop him from trying.

Once Dimitri took his seat, I stood up. "Liss," I said. I could already feel the waterworks starting. "I've known you since we were five years old. When we were in that bitch's class, mind my language, and she was trying to make us write out our full names. I threw your textbook at her and called her a fascist bastard. If that's not friendship, I don't know what is. You have been the best friend I could ever ask for. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad you married Christian."

Lissa grinned at me. A tear leaked out of her eyes. "Five years ago, when we first got back to St. Vladimir's and you started hanging out with Christian, I thought you were making the biggest mistake of your life. I didn't try to hide my dislike of Christian, hell I went out of my way to try and prevent your relationship. But what you guys had was special. It took me a long time to see that and an even longer time to accept that," I told her honestly. "Somewhere along the way, I came to see how much Christian was there for you and how much he meant to you. Lissa, I'm so happy for you. I will never say this again, so I hope you're listening. Christian is good for you." Liss put her hand over her mouth, pretending to be surprised. "Liss, I'm so happy for you." I reached down and picked up my glass of champagne. "To the bride and groom."

Everyone raised their champagne to Lissa and Christian. I felt my eyes tear up as I looked at the happy couple. I knew if anything were to happen to me, Lissa would be in good hands.


	18. The News

After Lissa and Christian's wedding, my memories went forward about a month and a half. I was standing near the door to Lissa's room while Lissa and Christian watched a movie.

When the movie was over, Lissa looked at me uncomfortably. She had been acting weird all week. "Hey babe, can you go get me some chocolate ice cream?" She asked him. I knew that tone. It was the 'I need to talk to Rose about something you can't know about yet' tone. Luckily, Chrisitan didn't quite recognize her tone for what it was.

"You okay Liss?" He asked her anxiously.

"Yeah," she told him. "Just a little crampy. And you know I always crave chocolate when it's my time of the month." I saw Lissa wince a little. That meant she was lying to Christian. My eyes widened as I took in her lie. I knew what this had to mean.

Christian made a face at her reference. He was either really oblivious today or was choosing to let it slide. He nodded. "Of course," he agreed. He quickly kissed her then stood up.

The moment he was out the front door of their room, I turned to Lissa. "Liss?" I asked cautiously. She took one look at me and burst into tears. I sat down on the bed next to her. "It'll be okay Liss," I told her soothingly.

"No," she sobbed. "How can this be okay? I only just turned twenty two! This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Then how did it happen Liss?" I asked her. Lissa and Christian were always so cautious.

She sobbed harder. "I don't know!" She said panicked. "When I didn't get my period last month, I thought it was just because I was excited for the wedding. Rose, how did this happen? We always use a condom. I'm on the pill. How could this happen?"

I was about to respond when something she said replayed in my mind. "Liss," I said tentatively. "You said you missed your period when you got married. How pregnant are you?"

She looked at me sadly. "About two months," she admitted. "I started to suspect it when I didn't get my period again last week. I only found out officially today though. I snuck out to go to the clinic while Christian was asleep. I even used compulsion on my night guardian so he wouldn't remember seeing me. I just didn't want anyone to find out."

"Liss, everything will be okay. Who cares that you're only twenty-two? You were the queen at eighteen," I pointed out. "Plus, you always said you wanted a big family. Well the earlier you start, the more kids you'll get to have."

"It's just scary. I never thought I would be pregnant at twenty-two. I just feel so young," she admitted.

"You may be young Liss, but you're ready for this. You and Christian are ready to make baby Dragomirs," I told her with a small grin.

Lissa gave me a watery smile. "I'm scared of how Christian will react. What if he's not ready? What if he leaves me?" She asked terrified.

"Vasilisa Dragomir. If you weren't pregnant, I would slap you," I told her seriously. "Christian loves you. He'll be excited to have a baby with you."

"You think?" She asked uncertainly. "You really think we're ready for this?"

I nodded. There was no doubt in my head that Christian would be here for this baby. I had no doubts that Lissa and Christian would be the best parents for those little babies as possible. "Not going to lie. The idea of little Christians running around is terrifying, but I know you guys can handle it."

I heard the front door open and Lissa went into full-blown panic mode. "How do I tell him? What do I say? Rose I don't know how to do this," she whispered. I got up and went to take my post by the door. Once Christian entered the bedroom, Lissa turned pale and couldn't speak. Christian looked up at her worriedly.

"Lissa? What's wrong?" He asked her. She shook her head at him. She couldn't make herself tell him. "Come on Liss, talk to me," he begged.

She looked at me with pleading eyes. I groaned. "Really Liss? You're gonna make me do this?" I asked her.

She gave me her puppy dog eyes. No compulsion needed, Lissa knew exactly how to get me to do stuff for her. I groaned again. "Fine," I said, pretending to be grumpy.

"Rose?" Christian asked confused. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, daddy," I said to him. Hell, I wasn't one for beating around the bush.

"It's obviously some-" Christian cut himself off as my words dawned on him. His eyes widened as he turned to Lissa. He put his hand on her stomach. "Are you?"

She nodded nervously. I knew she was terrified of his reaction.

She had no need to be. Christian threw his hands around her and gave her a passionate kiss. My eyes will never be the same again.

When they broke apart for air, Lissa looked at him with wonder. "You're not mad?" She asked.

"Mad? How could I be mad? This is great! Liss, I get to have a baby with the most beautiful woman in the world. I can't think of anyone less mad than me right now," Christian told her. The sincerity in his voice rang out.

Lissa pulled him back down for a kiss. I silently crept out the door. I didn't need to see this, plus I was still trying to wrap my head around what I just found out. Lissa was going to have a baby.


	19. Eliza

The next time my memories slowed down, it was three months later. Dimitri and I were waiting in our apartment for Lissa and Christian. They had a doctor's appointment. They were going to find out the sex of their baby.

These last three months have not exactly been easy on me and Dimitri. It's hard to have to constantly pretend to be happy for Lissa. Don't get me wrong, we are happy for her, but I wish she would think a little bit. She is constantly talking about the baby and how she got pregnant so easily. Dimitri and I know we will never have that. Not that it would be sensible. As guardians, we really don't have time to raise a child. But still, sometimes I wish I could have Dimitri's babies. I never really wanted to be a mother, still don't, but I know how much Dimitri loves children.

And Lissa, well Lissa hasn't even been considering our feelings. She knows how frustrated we can get. I've complained about it to her a thousand times. Yet she is still flaunting her pregnancy.

I flopped onto the couch next to Dimitri who immediately wrapped his arms around me. I felt safe and comfortable in his embrace, but still felt just as agitated. "Hey, it's okay. She'll mellow out soon," he told me. I wasn't the only one irritated by Lissa constantly talking about the baby.

"When Dimitri? It's been three months and all I've heard about is that damn baby," I growled.

"I know it upsets you," he said softly. "But you have to realize that Lissa may not realize how this may affect us. You know how Lissa gets."

"She's usually so compassionate and understanding. I forget sometimes that when she gets excited about things, they completely consume her," I admitted. "But why is it so hard for her to stop talking about it? It's not a surprise that she got to conceive. Christian's a moroi and she's a moroi. I don't understand."

Dimitri kissed my forehead. "It may not be a surprise that she can have a baby, but it is her first baby. You always said she wanted a big family," Dimitri pointed out. "Her first baby is going to be important to her. Which is why she can't stop talking about it."

I sighed. "I hate when you're right," I grumbled.

Dimitri chuckled. He was spared having to respond by the door bell ringing. I went to get it. I knew it was Lissa and Christian, but I wasn't expected anyone else. I was surprised to see that there was a young dhampir girl with them. I stepped aside and let them in.

"Dimitri," I called. "We have visitors." He must have heard something strange in my voice, because he popped his head out the door. His eyebrows scrunched in confusion when he saw the girl. She couldn't be more than fifteen or sixteen.

I walked them into the living room. Once everyone had taken a seat, I turned to Lissa. "Rose, Dimitri, this is Eliza. Eliza, this is Rose and Dimitri," Lissa introduced.

Dimitri and I shook her hand, still confused as to why she's here. "Rose, Eliza is about two months pregnant," Lissa said tentatively. I closed my eyes so she wouldn't be able to see the anger and confusion in them. I have a feeling I knew what she was going to ask. "I was wondering if she could stay here with you." My eyes flew open.

I felt Dimitri stiffen next to me. He didn't know Lissa as well as I did, so he didn't follow her train of thought. "Why?" I asked, trying to stay calm.

"She used to live in a dhampir community," Lissa said. She said dhampir community like it was a dirty word. I squeezed Dimitri's hand. I didn't need to see his face to know that comment would upset him. He grew up in a dhampir community and after spending some time with his family, I could see how easy it was to fall in love with a place like that. I love Lissa and all, but sometimes she can be really insensitive, but I couldn't be mad at her. She grew up hearing about those prejudices. Hell, I used to look down on dhampirs in dhampir communities, but that was before I understood them. "When she got pregnant, she dropped out of school. She's only fifteen. She had hoped she would be able to stay with her mom, but when her mom found out she was pregnant, she kicked her out. She has no place to go."

I looked at the dhampir girl. She was short with short black hair. She had several scars on her neck. I would recognize those scars anywhere. They were scars earned from repeatedly giving blood. I would have similar scars from Dimitri if Oksana hadn't healed them. Everything about her screamed blood-whore. Until I looked at her eyes. Her eyes were a pale blue, almost grey. There was a haunted look in them. She looked like her world were crashing down around her. But there was something else. I would recognize the look in her eyes anywhere. It was the same look Lissa and I gave Dimitri when he was thinking about whether or not he was going to train me so I could stay at St. Vladimir's. It was the look that said 'you are my last hope.'

"Okay," I whispered. The dhampir girl looked at me shocked. "You can stay here."

I knew Dimitri was going to be shocked, but I'll explain to him later. After Lissa and Christian leave. "Oh thank you Rose!" Lissa said excitedly.

Eliza looked at Lissa like she was crazy. "Yes, thank you Rose," she said to me. I had to hide my laughter. She knew Lissa didn't have anything to do with my decision. I had a feeling I would get along with Eliza very well.

Lissa and Christian left soon after that. They didn't even tell me what they were having and suddenly I wondered if they even went to the doctor's today. I never found out how Eliza met Lissa.

Once they were gone, I showed Eliza to her room. I left her to unpack and went back to Dimitri. I knew he didn't understand my decision.

The second I entered our living room, Dimitri attacked me from behind. He wrapped his arms around my waist and put his head on my shoulder. "Why?" He whispered in my ear.

I pulled out of his grasp and turned so I was facing him. "Did you see the look in her eyes?" I asked quietly.

He looked at me confused. "No," he told me.

"It reminded me of the look I knew I had in my eyes the day you brought us back to St. Vladimir's. You were my only chance of staying there. She had that look in her eyes. She looked at me like we were her only chance. I couldn't say no to her," I explained. I looked down at the floor. It sounded childish now that I explained it out loud.

He cupped my chin and lifted it so I would have to look him in the eye. "Roza, that's nothing to be embarrassed about," he told me seriously. "If you think this was the right thing to do, then I am behind you all the way."

I grinned at him. "Thank you," I told him quietly. For a couple of minutes, I enjoyed the peace and comfort his warm embrace offered me. After a while, I broke the silence. "I'm going to go talk to her, if that's okay with you," I told him. He nodded at me.

"I'll start making dinner," he told me. I gave him a quick kiss before we parted.

I walked down the hallway towards the spare bedroom. I was grateful we had decided to go with the two room apartment for days when Lissa or Christian needed to stay the night. Mia stayed here sometimes too. Jill stayed here while she wasn't in Palm Springs, because it was safer and less people would realize she was here. Also, while Jill would never admit it, I think she felt more comfortable staying here than with Lissa. Lissa and Jill's relationship was still strained.

Eliza was lying down on the bed, having already unpacked her few belongings. When I walked in, she immediately sat up. "Hi," she said in a small voice.

"Hi," I said back with a small smile.

We exchanged a couple of pleasantries, before she quit stalling. "Why did you do this for me?" She asked.

I shrugged. "You needed a place to stay," I told her.

"Yeah, but Queen Vasilisa could have found me other arrangements. And as the queen's guardian, I'm sure you knew that," she pointed out. "So why did you do this?"

"You needed help. I could see it," I explained quietly. "I don't know how you came to be pregnant or how you ended up at Court, but I want to help you."

She looked up at me surprised. "You're an amazing guardian. I've heard stories about you. Aren't you supposed to look down on people like me? Dhampirs that don't aspire to be a guardian. Dhampirs that weren't raised by an Academy. I grew up in a dhampir community," she told me. A bitter edge entered her voice as she copied Lissa's earlier words.

"So did Dimitri," I told her quietly.

She looked up at me startled. "He grew up in a dhampir community?" She asked me surprised.

"I don't know anything about you. And I'm not like Lissa. I don't think it's bad that you grew up in a dhampir community. I don't think it's bad that you don't want to be a guardian. It's your life, your choice," I told her honestly. "As I told you before, my husband was raised in a dhampir community. None of his sisters wanted to become a guardian and they are all amazing people. This lifestyle is not for everyone."

She looked at me shocked. "And you're just going to ignore the fact that I'm pregnant?" She asked me.

I shrugged. "Like I said. I don't know anything about you. I don't know how it happened," I told her.

Her eyes widened as she studied me. "You're telling the truth," she told me surprised. She sounded like she couldn't believe her ears.

"Of course. I had a pretty bad reputation when I was in school. It taught me that not everything is as it seems," I told her seriously, remembering the rumors that had spread about me. "I don't know if you were in a relationship with or moroi or a one night stand. Either way, I'm not judging you."

She bit her lip as she looked at me. "I don't think I'm ready to talk about it," she told me. She was looking at the ground, that haunted look back in her expression.

"It's alright," I told her. "You don't have to talk about it."

I got up and walked towards the door. I turned back to face her. "Dimitri is working on dinner now, it should be done soon. I'll come and knock on your door when its ready."

I opened the door and started to leave when I was stopped by the desperation in her voice.

"I was raped," she said in a small voice.

My eyes widened as I looked at her. That was something I had never considered. I always thought that she was embarrassed about her one night stand, or that she was in a relationship that ended badly. "Then why did you get kicked out?" I asked her confused. "You got raped, there was nothing you could have done."

"I wasn't exactly kicked out. I ran away," she told me quietly, looking at the ground.

I sat down on the bed next to her. "Please explain," I told her.

"My mother didn't believe me," she told me bitterly. "She told me I was just a little blood-whore and that I shouldn't go spreading lies about esteemed royals. No one would believe me when I said Arnold Lazar raped me. My mom initially gave me the benefit of the doubt. She invited Arnold over. Of course, he denied it. I don't know what she expected. Did she think he was going to walk in and say 'yeah I raped your daughter?' I don't know what she was thinking. But then she did the worst thing she could possible do. She left him in my room with me. Alone."

She had a haunted look in her eyes. "You can probably guess what happened next," she told me. "When he was done, she knocked on the door. 'You two done?' she asked us. She heard him. She had to have heard me crying, begging him to stop, but she did nothing. I knew I had to get out of there. I wasn't safe in my own house anymore. I'm sorry that I lied to the queen, but I couldn't tell her the truth. I saw the look in her eyes when I told her I was pregnant. It was like she didn't expect anything else from a dhampir. I figured if I just told her I was kicked out, she would assume I'm just another blood-whore."

"It's okay. I don't blame you for lying to Lissa. I probably would have done the same in your situation," I told her.

She looked up at me. "Thank you," she told me.

I gave her a small smile. "Come on, let's go to the kitchen," I told her. "I'll bet Dimitri is dying to get to know you."

She looked up at me and nodded. She followed me to the kitchen. "Oh, it smells delicious," she moaned. When she walked in, she looked up surprised. "Are you expecting anyone else?"

"No, why?" I asked her confused.

"He's cooking a lot of food," she said confused.

"You should see Rose's appetite," Dimitri said with a chuckle. "She eats enough for two people."

I rolled my eyes at him. "That's not true," I grumbled.

Dimitri turned to Eliza. "I know you're pregnant so I made twice as much as I usually do. You really are eating for two," he joked.

"Well, three," she said looking at the ground.

"Twins?" I asked her surprised.

She nodded. "It apparently runs in the family. I have a twin brother. My mother was a twin, even my grandmother was a twin," she explained.

"That's weird," I told her.

She nodded in agreement. "Very," she agreed. "So what exactly are you making?"

"Fried chicken with a buttermilk breading with rice," Dimitri told her. "It's one of Rose's favorite dishes."

"Does this mean you bought donuts?" I asked him hopefully. I knew he had to have gotten groceries before he came home from work to make chicken and rice.

He chuckled. "The store clerk has finally stopped giving me weird looks when I buy five boxes of donuts," he told me.

I took that as a yes. "Where are they?" I asked him eagerly.

"Not until after dinner," he warned.

"Oh come on Comrade," I said pouting.

"No," he said sternly. He moved in front of the cabinet protectively.

I gave him an evil grin. I walked up to him slowly and wrapped my arms around his neck. I could almost reach the cabinet door. I leaned in closer to him. "Are you sure I can't have one donut?" I asked him, my lips almost touching his.

"Um…" He said, trying to remember his argument. He pressed his lips to mine. I briefly forgot about the donuts. When we broke apart, I remembered why I was seducing him in the first place. Somehow, during our kiss, he had picked me up so I was sitting on the counter. I don't even remember that happening.

I was easily able to grab a box of donuts. "Thanks Comrade," I told him with a grin as I hopped off the counter.

I turned around and blushed when I saw Eliza watching us. I had forgotten she was here. "Sorry," I muttered to her.

"It's fine," she said amused. "That was actually rather entertaining. I've never seen a man so helpless before."

I giggled. "I was not helpless," Dimitri protested.

"It's okay Comrade," I teased. "Not like you could help it."

Dimitri rolled his eyes. I went to sit next to Eliza at the kitchen table. I helped myself to a donut. "May I?" She asked, pointing to the box.

"What's mine is yours," I said through a mouthful of donut. She took a donut and started munching on it. As we sat there, eating donuts and talking, I realized how happy I was that we took her in.


	20. It's A...

About a week after Eliza moved in with us, Lissa finally went to that doctor's appointment to find out the sex of the baby. She went for real this time. How do I know this, you may ask? Well, it's because I dragged her and Christian there.

I showed up outside of Lissa's door and started pounding the daylights out of it. Lissa opened the door. When she saw me, she looked confused. "Rose? What are you doing here? Is everything alright?" She asked me concerned.

"Everything is fine," I reassured her. "You, Christian, and I are going on a little field trip."

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "To where?" She asked cautiously.

"I want to know if I'm having a goddaughter or a godson so I can start figuring out ways to spoil them," I said stubbornly. "We are going to find out now."

Two days earlier, Lissa had explained to me that they had never gotten around to going to the doctor's appointment, because her duty as queen had to come first. She also asked me to be the godmother. I was thrilled. I may not be able to have kids myself, but at least I could have a godchild.

Lissa sighed. "Knowing you, you probably already figured out a way around this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I don't have an appointment," she told me.

I grinned at her. "Oh, but you do," I told her. After I had left her house, I immediately went to the doctor's office. I asked them for the next open appointment, which happened to be today at 8:00 pm. Hence why I am standing outside of Lissa's palace housing at 7:30.

She groaned. "Christian!" She screamed.

"What?" He called back.

"We have to go. We have a doctor's appointment," Lissa told him.

Christian walked out of their bedroom, looking tired and disheveled. "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" He asked her.

"Because I just found out," Lissa told him, motioning to me.

I gave him a big smile. "Someone's not a morning person," I teased.

"Like you're much better," he retorted.

I rolled my eyes at him. Usually he was right, but right now, I would have gotten up at 3:00 pm for this. I wanted to know what Lissa was having. "Go get dressed. It really wouldn't look good if the queen was late for her doctor's appointment," I pointed out.

Christian grumbled as he walked back into the bedroom he and Lissa shared. Lissa started to follow him, but I stopped her. "You will definitely be late if you walk in that room right now," I told her. "I know what you and Christian are like. Once he's back out here, fully clothed, you can go get changed."

Lissa turned bright red, but didn't argue. She knew I was right. I got pulled into her head all the time when we still had the bond. Now that they're married, they don't even have to be sneaky about it.

I just have to say, thank god I don't have the bond anymore. After about five minutes, Christian emerged and I let Lissa go get dressed.

"Soooooo," I said, dragging out the 'o'. "What do you think you're having?" He shrugged. "Oh come on! You have to have a guess on whether you think your baby is a boy or a girl."

He shook his head. "I have no idea," he told me. He was avoiding my eye contact. Something wasn't right.

"Well, what do you want it to be?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter what gender the baby is," he told me. I studied his features, but couldn't figure out what's wrong."

"Okay Christian, what's wrong? I may not like you a whole lot, but I can see something is bothering you. Now what is it?" I asked him.

He glanced at the closed door to their bedroom then looked back at me. "It's nothing," he whispered. It was so obviously a lie.

"You are a really bad liar Christian," I told him. "Now tell me what it is. Unless you want me to tell Lissa and get her to figure it out."

"NO!" He practically shouted.

I looked at him surprised. "Christian? You're keeping this from Lissa? That's not like you," I told him confused.

He hesitated. Then his face broke. "What if I'm not ready?" He whispered.

I was so lost. "Not… ready?" I asked him. Then it clicked. "Oh."

He looked down at the floor embarrassed. "What if we're too young? What if I'm a bad father?" He asked me.

Normally, I would have teased him or made a joke, but I could see how serious he was being. I could see that this was really eating away at him. "Why would you think that?" I asked him softly.

"Rose, I am only twenty two," Christian told me. "I've barely started my life. What if I am too young to be a good father? I don't know anything about being a parent!"

"Christian, you need to calm down. You will be a good father," I told him.

"How can you be sure?" He asked me. I could hear the desperation in his voice.

"Do you love Lissa?" I asked him.

"That's a stupid question," he told me snarkily. Then his tone turned serious again. "Of course I love Lissa."

"Do you agree that you are good to her?" I asked him.

"I try my hardest to be," he told me, clearly confused by my logic.

"Well the baby is part of her. Isn't there some math thing that says if you do your best for Lissa, you'll do the best for the baby?" I asked him.

Christian stared at me. "Math never was your best subject was it?" He teased.

I grinned at him. "Nope," I told him. "I'm more of a hitting and punching type of girl rather than a sit down and get smart type of girl."

"So you just admitted that you're stupid?" He asked me amused.

I rolled my eyes at him. "I'm not stupid. I just don't care enough to try and learn the crap I'm never going to use in life," I told him with a shrug. "But stop changing the subject. Christian, I know you'll be a great father. You may be young, but I know you can do this. That baby is a part of you."

He looked at me. "Do you really believe that Rose?" He asked me uncertainly.

"Well, I'm no biologist, but I'm pretty sure Lissa couldn't make that baby without you," I told him.

He rolled his eyes. "Seriously Rose," he told me.

"I do," I told him seriously.

"Thanks Rose," he told me appreciatively. "If you ever tell anyone this, I'll deny it, but you really are like a sister to me. I really appreciate everything you've done for me and Lissa."

"Aw Christian, you're like a sister to me too," I teased.

"Way to ruin the moment Rose," Christian said rolling his eyes.

"It's what I do," I told him with a smile.

We stood there in silence for a few more minutes until Lissa finally emerged. She was wearing a t-shirt that showed off her small baby bump.

"Ready?" I asked her excitedly.

She grinned at me. "I'm ready," she told me.

We walked off to the doctor's office. I could see that Lissa was excited, but nervous. This was going to be the first time she would be seeing the baby. She would normally have gone earlier, but she didn't have time to with all her queenly responsibilities.

She was doing as much as possible now so she would have more time to be with her baby once they were born.

I didn't quite understand her logic. She's the queen. She makes her own hours, but I'm not arguing. It is her decision.

We finally walked into the doctor's office. We were five minutes early for Lissa's appointment, so we took our seats in the waiting room.

When the nurse came out and called Lissa in, I made no move to follow her. I was sure that this was something she would want to do alone with Christian. So I was extremely surprised when Lissa stopped about halfway to the door the nurse was waiting at. She spun around to look at me with her hands on her hips. "You did not interrupt me and Christian so you could just wait in the waiting room," she told me stubbornly. "Come see your godchild."

I may have been surprised, but I quickly recovered and was at Lissa's side in a heartbeat. "Are you sure Liss?" I asked her uncertainly. "This isn't something you want to do with Christian?"

Lissa shook her head. "I want you to be there with us," she told me. "Plus, I don't feel like having to get you out of trouble with Guardian Croft today. He will subject you to an hour long lecture if you let the queen and her husband go into a doctor's office without a guardian."

I couldn't help my laughter. She was absolutely right when she said Hans would never let me live that down. "If you insist," I said with a shrug, recomposing my face. On the outside, I looked like a stoic guardian, but on the inside I was squealing like a little girl. I couldn't wait to see my godchild.

We waited in the examination room for a couple of minutes before the doctor came in to greet us. She was a tall moroi woman with messy reddish orange hair. "Hello," she said in a high-pitched voice. "My name is Dr. Voda. It's lovely to meet your highness. Lord Dragomir." She held out her hand and Lissa and Christian shook her hand. She completely ignored me, but it didn't bother me. I was used to that kind of behavior from moroi. A lot of moroi think dhampirs are property. Our sole purpose in life is to guard them. Nothing more, nothing less. To them, we didn't have feelings or emotions. We simply were.

So while I was willing to brush off her ignorance, Lissa was not so kind. It constantly angered her how people looked down on me when she went somewhere and I was guarding her. You would only be able to tell she was angry if you knew her really well. I could see the tightening of her eyes and I knew Christian could too.

"Liss," I warned softly so the doctor couldn't hear. She ignored me.

"This is my guardian, Rose Belikov," Lissa said in a slightly angry voice. I internally groaned. Here we go again. The moroi doctor nodded towards me in acknowledgement, but made no further move to greet me.

This made Lissa even angrier. If I didn't know better, I would say the darkness was acting up again, but when Lissa got pregnant, she did her best to avoid the magic. She didn't want to risk hurting the baby by using her magic. So I knew it wasn't spirit's darkness. Lissa was just legitimately upset that no one treated me like I was their equal. "It wouldn't kill you to say hello to her," Lissa said through her gritted teeth.

The doctor looked at her flustered. "She's a dhampir," she said as if Lissa wasn't aware of that.

I had to suppress my chuckle. "Liss, just drop it. It's okay," I told her.

"How dare you address the queen like that?" The doctor asked me sounding outraged.

I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore. I leaned against the wall laughing. "Do you hear that Liss? I dare to address you that way," I said in between giggles. I couldn't stop laughing. I was so going to get hell from Hans if he figured out about this. "How dare I address my best friend of eighteen years with her nickname?"

I have no idea why I found that so funny. Maybe it was the fact that the doctor seemed oblivious to our friendship. Or maybe it was Lissa's obvious outrage. Or maybe it was Christian looking back and forth between the doctor and Lissa like they were a movie. Regardless, I was laughing.

Pretty soon Lissa joined in. Christian was looking at us like we were nuts, but trust me when I say, we've laughed at weirder things. When we had calmed down, Lissa turned to the doctor. "Can I see my baby now?" She asked excitedly.

The doctor looked startled, but nodded. She pulled out a jar of some gel stuff. "This will be cold," the doctor told her.

"You don't need to do that Christian," Lissa told him softly.

"It was easy Liss," he said with a shrug. I realized what he had done. He had made the gel stuff warmer.

When the doctor put the stuff on her stomach, Lissa didn't make a face or anything. I guess it worked. The doctor waved the wand around her stomach. An image of a very tiny, very blurry looking baby came on the screen. "It appears you are having a little girl," she told them after a moment of moving the ultrasound wand around. "Congratulations."

The doctor didn't say anymore. She walked out of the room, to print the ultrasound pictures I assumed.

It took one glance at Lissa and Christian to realize they needed some alone time. "I'll just be in the hallway," I told them. I walked out of the room and leaned against the wall in the hallway. I couldn't keep the smile of my face. I was going to have a goddaughter.


	21. The Babies

My memories flew by again. For two and a half months, Eliza and I got closer and closer. I got to know her a lot and came to appreciate her snarky mischievous personality. She was really a lot like me, which Dimitri didn't waste any time pointing out to me.

When my memories slowed down, I was in a doctor's office with Eliza and Dimitri. It was my day off. I knew Lissa would be somewhere with Christian, no doubt surrounded by guardians. At almost eight months pregnant, Lissa had her guardians doubled. She was terrified that there would be an attack now that she was sore and having difficulty moving. I understood her fear and supported her decision whole-heartedly. I just wish I could see Dimitri more. I saw him almost as little as I had when Lissa first became queen, and let me tell you, it sucks.

But today, that's not what I was thinking about. Okay, well only a little. Most of my focus was on Eliza and the fact that we were going to find out what sex her babies are today. Only a small part of my mind was thinking about how Dimitri and I were going to be able to spend all night together for the first time in almost a month. It was hard not to think about it when he was sitting next to me rubbing circle into my hand.

I shook my head to clear it and looked at Eliza. She looked terrified. Today was a special day for her in more than one way. She turned sixteen today. After her doctor's appointment, I have a couple of things planned to celebrate her birthday. I just hoped she liked it. I knew she was upset with her circumstances, but I have to believe that things have gotten better since she's come to live with me. She seems happier, but nothing can hide the two babies growing inside of her. They're a constant reminder of what happened to her almost five months ago.

She was shaking a little in her seat. I reached out and put my hand over hers. "Calm down," I told her gently.

She looked at me nervously. This wasn't the first time she was going to see the babies, but now they weren't going to look like two jelly beans inside her stomach. They were going to look like two babies.

"I can't," she told me. Her voice was shaky and she sounded terrified.

"Eliza, what's wrong?" Dimitri asked her concerned.

"What if they're two boys?" She asked us. "What if they look like him?"

Neither of us had to ask her what she meant. It took her a little while, but eventually she warmed up to Dimitri and told him what happened. He didn't seem that surprised and knew exactly what to say to her to help her. I was ecstatic that she trusted him enough to tell him the truth and I could see that Dimitri was happy that she trusted us this much. We weren't exactly parental figures in her life, but we were close to that.

"No matter what, they won't look exactly like him," I pointed out. "There will be a little bit of you in them. You just have to find it. Besides, you won't be able to tell today. You're just going to find out what their genders are. Be excited."

She gave me a small smile, but still looked scared. Something else was bothering her, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Dimitri looked at her affectionately. "Eliza," he told her gently. "You have nothing to worry about. Those two babies may look like him, but that doesn't make them him. You will raise them to be amazing kids, regardless of whether they are boys or girls."

She looked at him hopefully. "How can you be sure?" She asked him.

"Because you are their mother," he told her. He used that tone. No one can doubt his words when he uses that tone.

Eliza looked visibly relieved. I gave Dimitri a small smile and squeezed his hand. That's one of the things I love about Dimitri, he always knows what to say.

"I'm going to take a nap," Eliza told us yawning. We had to wake up at the crack of night to come in for an appointment. Unfortunately, because Eliza is a dhampir, we have to wait forever to get her baby checked out. She wiggled around in her seat until she was comfortable and almost instantly fell asleep.

I snuggled into Dimitri's chest. "So what do you think she's having?" I asked him curiously.

"Twins," he answered.

I rolled my eyes at him. "No shit Sherlock," I told him sarcastically.

His chest vibrated with his chuckles. "But seriously. What do you think?" I asked him.

He looked down at me. "I'm not sure," he told me honestly. "I hope two boys." There was an amused note in his voice.

"Why?" I asked him.

"Well can you imagine the hell a girl raised by you and Eliza would wreak?" He asked me. "You two are in trouble more often than you're not."

I pulled back from Dimitri and turned in my seat so I was facing him. I raised my eyebrows at him. "We do not!" I told him.

"You do too. I never thought I'd meet someone who causes as much trouble as you do, but Eliza comes close," he told me. "I'd be terrified by any girl raised by the two of you."

I knew he was joking. She could have anything and he would be happy. "Big mistake Comrade," I told him. I momentarily forgot we were in a doctor's office and I pulled him out of his seat, tackling him to the ground.

He was shocked at first, but he quickly recovered. He flipped us over and leaned all of his weight on me, almost pinning me to the ground. One thing he always forgets to account for is the electricity that flows between us when he is this close to me.

I lifted my head up so our lips were almost touching. The moment he let his defenses down, I flipped us over. Every 'fight' of ours ends this way. I don't know why he bothers.

He groaned in defeat. "You win Roza," he told me.

I giggled then closed the distance between our lips. Our kiss was interrupted by Eliza's laughter.

"I close my eyes for five minutes and this is what happens?" She asked us, her voice amused.

We broke apart, startled to realize we were still in a doctor's office. Dimitri and I looked at Eliza sheepishly. "Sorry," we said in unison. We may be older than her, but she has a way of making us feel five years old.

Eliza rolled her eyes at us. She looked like she was about to say something, but she was interrupted.

"Eliza Greaser," a doctor called from the door.

Dimitri and I quickly got to our feet and followed Eliza in.

Eliza looked extremely nervous as she followed the doctor. I knew exactly what was going through her head. She was torn between excitement and fear. She was excited to see her babies, but she was terrified of what she would see.

My heart went out to her. I don't even know what I would do if I were in her situation.

"Deep breaths Eliza," I reminded her as she lay down. She was breathing heavily as she watched the doctor set up the equipment.

She took deep breaths, trying to compose herself.

After a few moments, it seemed to work.

A couple of minutes passed before the doctor was ready. "This will be cold," she warned Eliza.

Eliza nodded, unable to find her words.

The doctor put the gel on her stomach and Eliza's eyes widened as the doctor moved the wand around her stomach. The babies' heartbeats filled the room and a fuzzy picture came up on the ultrasound screen.

The doctor studied the picture closely. "I see a baby girl here and…" She moved the wand a little more. "And a baby boy here. Congratulations!"

Eliza let out the breath she was holding. "I'm having a boy and a girl?" She asked uncertainly.

To most mothers, this would seem like the best possible outcome. One of each. But I know it wasn't the outcome Eliza was hoping for. She was hoping for two girls.

I grabbed her hand. "It will be okay," I told her soothingly. And I meant it. Everything was going to be fine.


	22. Its Coming

My memories went forward about a month. I was on duty guarding Lissa while she was presenting her decree to repeal the quorum law. I honestly wasn't paying attention to much that she was saying. I was putting all of my focus into every nook and cranny that something could hide in and jump out unexpectedly. Call me paranoid, but you never know who could be out to get the queen.

I spared a glance for Lissa every now and then, and about twenty minutes after the meeting started, I saw her face go pale – paler than usual. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. If this is what I thought it was, Lissa was going to kill that baby when it came out.

Regardless of what was happening, I didn't need a bond to see that Lissa was in pain. I rushed to her side in an instance. Some people on the council didn't realize what was happening to Lissa and they shot me nasty looks as I left my post and joined Lissa. I ignored their stares.

"Liss?" I asked quietly. I grabbed her hand and she squeezed mine as hard as she possibly could. I winced slightly. Who ever knew Lissa was that strong? "Deep breaths Liss. It will pass."

She took a couple of deep breaths and after a few moments her grip on my hand loosened. She didn't let my hand go, but at least I could feel my hand again.

Throwing guardian protocol out the window, I pulled out my cell phone and called Christian. Hans was going to kill me later for not alerting him that Lissa was going to be transferred to the hospital. He just was not my priority.

"Hello?" Christian asked confused. I couldn't blame him. I rarely called him. Usually I just showed up at his and Lissa's place unannounced.

"Meet me at the hospital," I told him quickly. I didn't have much time, I needed to get Lissa to the hospital.

Luckily, some of the other guardians in the room realized what was happening. "I called an ambulance," Eddie told me. Aside from me, he had been the first to realize that Lissa was going into labor.

I knew Dimitri was with Christian, but I had to call him. I was barely containing my panic. Lissa looked so pale and she looked like she was in so much pain.

I quickly called Dimitri and he answered on the first ring. I obviously wasn't the only one willing to break guardian protocol right now. "Roza it's okay," he said instantly. I heard scuffles in the background, which I could only assume was Christian getting the baby bag and throwing in some last minute things. "Everything will be fine. How's Lissa?"

"Pale," I told him. I don't know what was wrong with me. I can face down an army of Strigoi, but when my best friend is going into labor, I turn into a bloody coward.

"Did the ambulance get there yet?" Dimitri asked.

I winced as Lissa's grip on my hand tightened as another contraction ripped through her. "No," I gasped out. I squeezed Lissa's hand reassuringly, trying to keep her calm. It was important that she didn't see my anxiety or fear.

"Everything okay?" Dimitri asked worriedly.

"She's having another contraction," I told him.

"Remind her to ta…" Dimitri started to say. "Rose?" He had a strange tone in his voice.

"Yes?" I asked.

"When was Lissa's first contraction?" He asked.

"Right before I called Christian. Why?" I asked confused. Dimitri said something in Russian. "Dimitri?"

"You need to get her to the hospital as soon as possible. Her contractions were only three minutes apart," he told me. I didn't know anything about having a baby, but from Dimitri's tone, I'm guessing three minutes is not a lot.

Luckily, the ambulance chose that moment to show up. "It's here," I breathed into the phone.

I never once left Lissa's side as they loaded her into the ambulance. "You can't come in here," a tall male moroi told me in a nasally voice.

"Like hell I can't," I spat. "I am her guardian and I am not leaving the queen unattended." That moroi was nuts if he thought I was leaving Lissa's side.

I heard Dimitri chuckle on the other end of the phone. "And for a second, I was almost worried about you," Dimitri joked.

I rolled my eyes at him, but otherwise did not acknowledge his joke. I was more focused on the moroi and the ambulance driver's heated argument about whether or not I was allowed to accompany Lissa to the hospital.

Another contraction hit Lissa and this time, she wasn't able to hold in her scream.

"Just fucking bring her to the hospital before she has this baby in the back of an ambulance," I said angrily. The two moroi looked at me shocked. Lissa whimpered slightly. "Move!" I yelled.

That finally got them moving. There was no more debate. I was allowed on this ambulance. After another minute, we were speeding away to the opposite side of Court where the hospital was located.

I was only focused on Lissa. it wasn't until we had pulled up to the hospital, that I realized I was still on the phone with Dimitri.

"Roza? Roza?" I heard in the phone.

"We're here," I told him.

"We are too. Christian should be outside," he told me. As soon as we were out of the ambulance, I saw Christian sprinting towards us. The second he reached us, I slipped out of Lissa's grip and let Christian take my place. It was his turn to take care of Lissa.

I headed off towards the waiting room. I knew that's where my place was. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going until I walked into a wall. The wall wrapped its arms around me. It took me a moment to realize I had walked right into Dimitri. I buried my head in his chest and wrapped my arms around his waist. We stood like that for a moment until Dimitri led me over to a group of chairs. I sat down and immediately leaned my head against Dimitri's shoulder. I think I might have been as scared as Lissa or Christian.

Dimitri whispered Russian words into my ear, trying to calm me down. It didn't do a lot of good. Now that I knew Lissa was safe in the hospital, my fear was slowly disappearing and was being replaced by excitement. My goddaughter was going to be here soon.

It seemed like days had passed before Christian came to find us in the waiting room. I glanced at Dimitri's watch and saw it had only been about two hours.

Christian looked completely exhausted, but he had a huge smile on his face. I jumped to my feet and gave him a hug. While we would never admit it, we cared about each other, and I knew he needed a hug.

"She wants to see you," Christian told me.

I didn't need any further prodding. I waited anxiously for Christian to head back, but he shook his head at me. "She just wants to see you. Room 128, maternity ward."

I nodded and took off. I'm pretty sure a couple of nurses yelled at me for running in the hallway, but I wasn't paying attention.

When I finally got to Lissa's room, I saw her sitting in her bed. She was holding a pink bundle.

I held my breath as I walked closer. Lissa looked up with a small smile on her face. She may be sweaty and her hair may be matted to her head, but the pure look of joy on her face made up for that.

"Rose?" She asked me tentatively. I looked up at her. "Meet Rhea Sabina Rose Dragomir."

I couldn't help the tears that sprung into my eyes. Lissa hadn't even hinted that the baby was going to be named after me. I knew she was going to name her Rhea after her mother, but I was totally shocked by my name being thrown in there.

Lissa held the baby out to me and I carefully held her. It was a little uncomfortable holding the baby. I never really had the opportunity to take care of kids while I was at the Academy, and with the exception of my short stay with the Belikovs when I was hunting down Dimitri, I really didn't have a lot of experience. After a couple of minutes, I became more comfortable and I picked her up slightly so I could kiss her forehead. "Hi Rhea," I said in a baby voice. "I'm your Aunt Rose."

I couldn't believe I was holding the precious bundle before me. I was a godmother!


	23. Molly

Three more months went by before my memories slowed down. Eliza was eight months pregnant and she decided to just now start shopping for baby supplies. Dimitri and I were accompanying her, giving Lissa and Christian some time to bond with little Rhea on their own. Lissa was constantly complaining that she never got to spend time with her daughter and her husband outside of when Christian sits through her meetings, so I suggested she take a weekend off from her queenly responsibilities. She whole-heartedly agreed, insisting Dimitri and I take the weekend off as well. Dimitri and I were certainly not going to refuse that offer. Since the baby was born, Christian has been accompanying Lissa to all her royal functions. Dimitri and I have been on different schedules, so the only time we're with each other is for a couple of minutes as we switch shifts.

The only thing that makes it worth it is my beautiful granddaughter. I never thought I would be someone who could take care of children, but I am putty when she is in my arms. I feel like I could do anything.

We decided to spend the first day of our break helping Eliza, then tonight and the rest of the weekend is ours. I am so excited. It was a two hour drive to a decent sized mall. This left far too much time to be distracted by Dimitri's presence.

Somehow I made it the entire trip without scarring Eliza for life. Once we were at the mall, there were a million things we needed to get done. We needed to buy paint and decorations for the nursery. We needed to buy two cribs. We needed to buy outfits for the babies, and diapers. We needed to buy everything two babies could need. Luckily, this trip was being sponsored by Lissa, so ignoring the financial part of it; it was still going to be time consuming.

The first thing we did was look at paint and wallpaper. Eliza was looking for a gender neutral color like orange or yellow. After a good hour of looking at paint, Eliza finally settled on a pale orange. It reminded me of a sunset.

We got the paint then headed over to a furniture store to look for cribs. Eliza fell in love with two white cribs that probably cost more than Lissa's palace housing. I managed to pry Eliza away from them and led her to a section more sensible for our price range. I know Lissa's paying for it, but I didn't want to take too much money from her.

I loved these pale yellow cribs we found. I thought they would really go well with the color Eliza picked for the babies' room. But judging by the look of disgust on her face, she disagreed.

After I disapproved of all of her ideas and she disliked all of my suggestions, it looked like we were never going to find cribs. But then she saw it. There was a white crib with a black design on it in the way back of the store. It wasn't too girly for the boy and it was perfect for the girl. Even I couldn't find a flaw in them. They were a little more expensive than I was hoping for, but they weren't ridiculously expensive. I could see how much she wanted them, so I quickly agreed.

After we looked at cribs, we went to a little thrift store that was squeezed into the corner of the mall. It didn't look like it saw much business, and I couldn't understand why. My only guess would be that people probably don't spare a second glance to it when it's right next to the GAP. It had some really nice stuff. Eliza found little blankets, a pink one with an ice cream cone in the middle for the girl, and a blue one with a teddy bear in the middle for the boy. She found a lamp for the nursery and a little bookshelf. She was also able to find some baby books that she would be able to read to her babies.

We also found some stuffed animals for the babies and little door tags. We still needed to get clothes for them and some essential baby stuff.

We had spent a lot more time looking for cribs than I had anticipated, so when we had finished looking at the decorations, the sun was starting to set. "Looks like this might have to become a two day trip," I said glumly. It may be selfish, but I was looking forward to my day with Dimitri.

Eliza shook her head at me. "Most of the stuff we need, I could probably find at the stores at Court," she told me.

"Are you sure?" I asked her uncertainly.

"Absolutely," she told me, nodding her head. "I only have one request."

I looked up at her curiously. "Can we get food before we leave? I'm starving," she told us, rubbing her swollen pregnant stomach.

I chuckled. "You don't have to ask me twice. Where do you want to eat?" I asked her. I was really hungry too and I was just about to mention something to Dimitri when she asked.

Eliza shrugged. "Anywhere at the food court," she told me.

We looked around the giant food court and ended up eating at a McDonalds. Most people were leaving the mall, so it was easy to find a table. We sat down at an empty table and started eating. Eliza got two orders of food, and even though I wasn't pregnant, I did the same. Dimitri shook his head at me when I placed my order, but he knew better to comment, especially when I was on an empty stomach.

We quickly ate all our food. As the mall numbers dwindled, I started to get nervous. I don't know why, I just had a feeling something was not right.

"I'm just going to run to the bathroom," Eliza told us when she had finished. It was like her fifth bathroom trip today, but I've heard being pregnant does that to you.

While she was gone, Dimitri and I finished eating, then cleaned up our table. We waited a few more minutes. When Eliza still didn't come back, my heart started to race. "I'm going to go check on her," I told him. I couldn't hide the fear in my voice.

"Roza?" Dimitri asked me concerned.

"I just have a bad feeling," I told him honestly.

"I'll go with you," he told me.

"You're going to go in a girls bathroom with me?" I asked amused.

"I'm going to wait outside the bathroom," Dimitri corrected me, rolling his eyes at me.

We headed towards the girls bathroom. When we were a couple of feet away from the door, a wave of nausea rolled over me.

I didn't say anything to Dimitri, I just sprinted to the bathroom. When I entered the bathroom, I was met with a horrifying sight. Eliza was lying on the floor and a female strigoi was standing over her. Eliza was breathing, but barely. There were many bite marks on her neck. This strigoi was playing with her food.

I took a moment to make sure that there were no other threats in this bathroom and then I pulled out my stake. The female strigoi hadn't noticed me yet.

I tried to sneak up behind her, but it is almost impossible to sneak up on a strigoi.

She turned to face me and I couldn't help the gasp that escaped me. I was looking at Molly. She was the moroi that was turned with Dimitri. I was usually composed, even when I was talking about Dimitri being turned, but I was just in shock now. Seeing her now, I felt like I was back in the caves. I was seeing Dimitri again. I was looking back at him as the strigoi bit into his neck. I ran, leaving my other half behind. I was stuck there.

Just like the first time I saw Dimitri as a strigoi, I froze when I saw Molly.


	24. Gone

Molly pounced at me, pinning me against the wall. I snapped out of my haze and let out a piercing scream. "Dimitri!" I yelled as loudly as I could. It wasn't very loud, because her arm was pressed against my chest.

"Rose Hathaway," she said in an evil voice. It was eerie how she could sound exactly the same, yet completely different.

"Dimitri!" I yelled again. Where was he? He snuck into the bathroom, trying to avoid Molly's attention.

Molly laughed evil. "Yelling for your strigoi boyfriend?" She asked. "I'm sure he would love to help me finish you off. We used to hunt together when we were first changed. That was before he went to Russia."

I winced slightly, but pressed my advantage. She didn't know he wasn't a strigoi anymore. I looked at him and a thousand messages passed between us. He pulled out his stake and held it behind his back.

I saw him take a deep breath and he closed his eyes. I knew what he was going to do. He was going to play strigoi.

"Do not kill her," he said, his voice cold and empty. I felt chills run down my back. I don't think I would ever get used to his voice without the usual warmth and love present in it. "I want her."

Molly's grip on me loosened slightly. Not enough for me to break away from her, but enough that I could breathe again.

"I was hoping you would be here Belikov," Molly said with a smile. "I'll let you have the pleasure."

She pushed me against the wall, hard. My head snapped back, hitting the wall, and I saw stars in my vision.

Molly turned to face him, her smile vanishing as she took in his form. "Impossible," she whispered.

Molly blinked as if she couldn't believe her eyes. She looked so confused.

"But it is possible," Dimitri said, lunging at her.

Déjà vu. It was just like when Natalie had turned Strigoi. Dimitri was here, protecting me like always.

They fought for a while, both of them getting a lot of hits on the other. I felt so helpless, but I couldn't feel my body. I couldn't make my arms and legs move to get up and help him.

I couldn't only watch as he fought. A strange cry made Molly hesitate as she looked over at Eliza's body. The sob escaping Eliza was heartbreaking. I looked at the girl that I have come to know and love. I looked back at Dimitri and saw a look present in him that I haven't seen since I got arrested. It was the look that said someone he loved was in trouble. And he would do anything to help them.

He attacked Molly with a fervor and for the second time in my life, I saw a strigoi truly terrified. She knew she was going to die.

I saw the opening at the same time that Dimitri did. He plunged his stake into her heart.

He pulled his stake out, letting her body fall to the ground. He rushed to my side. I was a lot better. I was starting to feel my limbs again. They hurt, but I could feel them.

I shook my head at him, making the black spots expand. "Go help Eliza," I told him.

He looked at me hesitantly. I know that if he had a choice, he would choose me over Eliza, but right now that's not what I wanted. "I'm fine," I told him weakly. "Go!"

He squeezed my hand and kissed my cheek. "I can't leave you," he told me.

I lifted up my arm, shakily. It took a lot more effort than it should have. I put my hand on the side of his cheek. "Go. Call the alchemists and help her. Help her babies," I told him.

I guess I convinced him, because I saw him leave my side. The dots were almost entirely covering my vision.

I heard his soft voice on the phone. "We need ambulances. Two dhampirs, one pregnant with twins. Strigoi attack. The strigoi body is in the female restroom…" He started to say. I tuned his phone call out after that. I focused on breathing, but every breath I took caused a huge pang of pain in my chest. No matter what I did, the dots refused to leave.

I could tell you the exact moment the Alchemists arrived, because I felt Dimitri return to my side. He gripped my hands in his. "Stay with me Roza," he said to me. "Stay with me."

I tried to keep my eyes open for Dimitri, but it was so hard. I had the vague feeling of being lifted up before I lost consciousness.

I woke up feeling well rested in a warm bed. I thought I was dead for a minute, because all I could see was white. My vision quickly adjusted and I was able to make out the bare walls and bare everything of the hospital. I felt something warm near my hand and I saw a tanned hand holding mine. I looked up and saw Dimitri sleeping in one of the uncomfortable, plastic hospital seats. The events from today crashed down on me. I unintentionally squeezed Dimitri's hand and his eyes flew open.

His eyes were filled with love and happiness. "Morning sleeping beauty," he said to me.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You really need a more original greeting Comrade," I told him. I studied his features. He looked so quiet, but it didn't seem like he had any permanent damage from Molly.

"I didn't know if you were going to make it," he whispered to me. "They brought you in for surgery before Lissa good get here."

"I wasn't that bad," I told him, rolling my eyes. He was overdramatizing my injuries… Like always.

"Rose, she broke your spine," Dimitri told me, his eyes widening. "She also broke your rib, which punctured your lung. It took us hours to convince them Lissa should be allowed to go see you. And that was after she used compulsion on half of the hospital staff."

I looked at him shocked. Maybe he wasn't overdramatizing my injuries. "How long have I been out?" I asked him.

"Two days," he told me. "Lissa has had to heal you gradually, because she couldn't do it all at once."

I nodded. I wish she didn't have to heal me at all. I couldn't have been that bad. I was nowhere near as bad as Eliza. My eyes widened and I looked at Dimitri. "Eliza?" I asked him terrified.

He looked down at the ground. "You should get some sleep Rose," he told me, blatantly trying to change the subject.

"Dimitri!" I warned him. I sat up, pushing my legs over the side of the bed. I hopped down and stumbled a little, but quickly regained my balance. "Where is she?"

I didn't care how bad she was, I wanted to see her.

"Rose," Dimitri said softly. I looked up at him and was shocked to see tears streaming down his face. My heart sunk in my chest.

"Dimitri, where is she?" I asked. I was desperately hoping he wasn't going to confirm my fears.

"She didn't make it Rose," he told me.

My legs started to feel like jelly. I collapsed to my knees, closing my eyes. This was just a really bad dream. I was going to wake up and see Eliza standing over me with her hands on her hips, demanding breakfast. I opened my eyes and saw the same hospital room.

Dimitri rushed to my side and helped me to my feet. He wrapped his arms around me tightly, holding me safely in his warm embrace.

I couldn't process it. Eliza was gone. She was so full of life and hope. She was only sixteen! And now she was dead. It was all my fault. If I hadn't hesitated when I saw Molly, she would still be here.

"It's my fault," I sobbed into his shoulder. "It's all my fault that she's dead."

"It's not your fault Rose," Dimitri told me soothingly.

"It is. I hesitated. I should have known better, but I hesitated," I sobbed.

"Rose!" Dimitri said, his voice strong. "You saw someone you knew. It's hard not to hesitate when you see someone you used to know."

I shook my head. "That's not why I hesitated," I whispered. "I was weak."

"You were not weak," Dimitri told me. He pulled back slightly and I could see his earnest expression. It was hard to doubt his words, but I found myself feeding off my own doubt.

"I was there. I was looking back at the cave," I whispered to him. I saw understanding light up his features.

"It's okay Rose," he told me. "You weren't expecting her. Even if you had staked Molly immediately, Eliza probably wouldn't have made it. Her injuries were fatal."

"I just can't believe she's gone," I told him.

He hugged me close to him for another moment. After a while, he pulled back again. "Rose, there's something else," he told me.

I looked at him fearfully. What else could there be? "Eliza was sent in immediately for an emergency C-Section," he told me. I closed my eyes. I don't know if I was ready to hear this. I might as well get it out of the way.

"The babies are dead aren't they?" I asked him. I tried to keep my voice steady. I tried and failed.

"No," Dimitri said.

I opened my eyes and looked up at him. "No?" I asked hopefully.

"No," he confirmed. "They were premature and are currently in intensive care, but their doing a lot better. The nurse keeps asking me what we're going to do with the babies. Lissa has us as Eliza's legal guardians, so it's our call."

"I want them," I told him instantly. There was no doubt in my mind. I wanted them. "I want to adopt them."

He nodded. "I was hoping you would say that," he told me with a small smile. "Do you want to see them?"

I nodded. I followed him through the twists and turns of the hospital until we were standing outside a thick glass window that looked into a room with two bassinets. I stepped closer to the glass and was able to make out the babies. They were beautiful. I couldn't tear my eyes away from them.

I was mesmerized by the tufts of black hair sticking out of the boy's head and the way the firl

"We have to name them," he told me.

"Mason," I whispered. "Mason Ivan Belikov and Eliza."

His eyes filled with tears again. "Thank you Roza," he said to me softly. I knew what he was thanking me for. Ivan had been his best friend until he died.

I nodded at him, still staring at the babies. They were mine.


	25. Car Crash

My memories flew by again. I watched my kids grow up so much in just a few short months. We were celebrating their first birthday. Mason Ivan and Eliza Lissa were the cutest children I have ever seen in my life. I was terrified out of my mind, when we first brought them home after they had been in the hospital for two weeks.

Watching them sit in front of their little happy birthday cupcakes, made me think about every decision Dimitri and I have made.

This past year hasn't been easy.

I didn't want to be like my mother and just leave them to be raised by a stranger.

Dimitri and I talked about it. We will enroll them at the Academy when they are five, but we will visit them often. Lissa and Christian are doing the same thing and we are obligated to go with them. But once we're inside the Academy's border, we're not bound to stay by their side. It was a difficult decision, but we know that that's the best decision for our children.

We also decided we weren't going to force our decision on them. If they don't want to become guardians, that is their decision.

When we first brought them home, five years seemed like such a long time, but now, not so much. This past year has flown by. Four more years will be gone in a blink of an eye. It just seems too soon now.

I could feel my eyes tearing up a little as everyone sang to them. They were smiling and giggling, completely oblivious to the fact that Dimitri and I were going to ruin their lives in just a few short years.

Dimitri came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. There was a small smile on his face, but I could see through it. That smile was just for show.

"What's wrong Roza?" Dimitri asked me quietly.

"Did we make the right decision?" I asked him.

"Huh?" He asked confused.

"Did we make the right decision? Should we have adopted them, when we knew that one day we were just going to abandon them to the Academy?" I asked him.

Dimitri glanced around then sneakily pulled me out of the kitchen.

"What brought this on Rose?" Dimitri asked me.

"I don't want to be like my mother," I told him. "She couldn't even take the time to show up for their first birthday party! She said she was going to be here. I don't want to be like that. I don't want to dump them off at the Academy and have them grow to resent me."

"Roza, that won't happen. I don't know why your mother isn't here, but you are a good mother. You've already proven it. You've worked something out with Lissa so that while you're guarding her, Mason and Eliza are with Rhea. You spend more time with them than any normal guardian would," he told me.

His words went a long way to cheering me up. I did do my best to be a presence in their lives. I smiled at him. "Are you calling me weird?" I asked him jokingly, poking his stomach.

"Roza, don't even pretend you think your normal," he told me amused.

I pouted at him. "I think I'm pretty normal," I told him, sniffing. I pulled out of his embrace.

He wasn't having that. He pulled me close to him. "Roza, you're not normal. And I wouldn't want you any other way," he told me. He pressed his lips to mine.

Our kiss was interrupted by someone clearing their throat. I looked up and saw Lissa standing in the doorway, looking at us amused.

"Couldn't wait till tonight, could you?" She asked me jokingly.

"Puhlease," I told her. "You and Christian are always all over each other. And we weren't gone that long."

"No you weren't," she agreed. "The reason I came to find you is because Hans is looking for you."

I looked up at her surprised. "Hans is here?" I asked confused.

She nodded. "I figured it was something about guardian duty," she said with a shrug.

"Yes," I said amused. "We definitely want to keep our baby Dragomir safe, don't we?" I pointed to her stomach. Lissa had just recently found out that she was pregnant again.

She rolled her eyes at me. "I told him it was unnecessary. If he let Jill come back, I don't know why he insists on doubling my guardians when I'm only two months pregnant," she said rolling her eyes.

I shrugged. "I'll go see what he wants," I told her. I wasn't about to try to understand Hans. He is a strange, strange person.

"He's in the lobby," she told me.

Dimitri and I headed to the lobby of our apartment. Hans was standing with his back towards us at first, but he turned when he heard our footsteps. "Guardian Belikovs," he greeted with a grim look on his face.

My jaw dropped. Since I got married, he hasn't once called me Guardian Belikov. He still sticks with Guardian Hathaway. "Guardian Croft," Dimitri and I responded in unison.

Hans' face fell slightly. "Hathaway, I have some bad news for you," he told me quietly.

I looked at him curiously. Lissa and Christian were here, so I knew they weren't in danger. Jill was here, so it wasn't her. It's not like there wasn't enough guardians here. Eddie was here, so was Mikhail. Was I getting fired or something? I couldn't say anything; I just looked at him expectantly.

"There was a really bad car accident on the Highway outside Court," he told me. I scrunched up my eyebrows in confusion. I was not following his logic at all. Somehow, I got the idea that Dimitri knew what was going to be said. He stiffened next to me. I glanced at him, only to see the fear on his face.

"Who was in the car?" Dimitri asked breathlessly.

That's all it took for my mind to catch up with Dimitri's logic. Hans looked at me compassionately. I took a step towards Hans. "Who was it?" I asked.

"It was your mother and your father," he told me. "Your mother went to pick your father up at the airport."

I felt my world crashing down around me. I knew what the answer was going to be, but I asked anyway. "Are they okay?" I asked, my voice hollow. I barely noticed when Dimitri wrapped his arms around my waist, trying to hold me together.

Hans shook his head. "They didn't make it," he told me. "Janine was pronounced dead on the scene and Ibrahim died about an hour later in the hospital." Well, he certainly wasn't one to sugar coat things. "I know it's them, but we need you to identify the bodies. They're in a human hospital and only family is allowed to do that."

I nodded, rushing back to the kitchen. "Watch them Lissa, please," I begged. "I'm going to the hospital."

I grabbed the keys to our car and Dimitri's license. I was in no shape to drive right now. Not that Dimitri would let me anyway.

We rushed to our car. I saw Hans jump in his car and we followed him to the hospital.

I barely kept track of where we were going, but I stopped dead when I saw them. They looked awful. I had to take deep breaths to calm my churning stomach. When would the death stop? I knew it was them. They may be marred and bloody, but I could tell. I could see patches of my mom's wild red hair and I could see Abe's blood-stained paisley scarf. There was no doubt. This was them.

I turned to Dimitri and buried my head in his chest. This was too much. I couldn't handle it.

I don't know how long I stood there for, but eventually I let the waves of sleep pull me under. I let them pull me to the place where reality didn't exist. I didn't want to leave this place. I didn't want to wake up.

I had the vague feeling of being in a car. I woke up as the car stopped. The pain was too much. This was almost as bad as when Dimitri had been turned and I had to hunt him down. Almost as bad, but not quite. No matter what happened now, I knew I had Dimitri. While I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel right now, I knew that Dimitri would help me find it. My other half was here to help me.


	26. It's Time

Years and years flew by in my memory. I saw Lissa helping me get over the death of my parents. She knew exactly what to say to help me. After all, she had been in my place when we were fifteen.

Dimitri was the rock in my life. I don't think I would have gotten through what happened without him. The year after my parents death was one of the darkest times of my life, but thanks to Lissa and Dimitri, I pulled through it.

I watched my beautiful son and daughter grow up. When they were old enough, Dimitri and I told them about their mother. I was so scared they were going to resent us for it, but they didn't. They seemed to appreciate the memories we were able to share of their mother.

They grew older and older. Mason fell head over heels in love with Rhea, Lissa's first daughter.

Lissa and I constantly joke about how they were a match made in heaven. When Mason was twenty-nine, he proposed to Rhea. She said yes. Mason became her guardian shortly before they were married and I've never seen a happier couple.

They had decided against kids, trying to avoid the stigma that would bring upon their child. "Can you imagine what would happen to any dhampir child a Dragomir has?" Mason had asked me, once upon a time.

That's why what he just told me didn't make sense. My son was forty-one years old. And he was telling me that his wife was pregnant. It's not that forty-one was too old to have kids, that's how old Lissa was when she had her last kid, it's just that both of them had insisted they didn't want kids.

"Um… What?" I asked, certain I had misheard him when he told me Rhea was pregnant.

"Rhea is pregnant," he told me once again. There was joy in his eyes.

"How?" I asked him.

"About a month and a half ago, me and Rhea decided that we didn't care what everyone thought anymore. We've always wanted kids, we were just afraid of how people would react to it," he told me. "But I could see how much it was bothering Rhea. Her youngest sister just got engaged and you know she's going to have a huge family. We've watched all of her siblings get married and have babies. We want it. I know we're old, but we're ready for this."

I pulled my son towards me, wrapping my arms around him. Tears were streaming down my cheeks and I wasn't even trying to stop.

When Eliza told me that she wanted to be a guardian, I accepted the fact I wasn't going to have grandchildren. She was in love with being a guardian and she did it well. Dimitri and I always encouraged her to do her best and when she told us she was certain about her career choice, we started training with her and helping her.

She graduated as one of the best novice's in her class at St. Vladimir's Academy and Dimitri and I were there cheering her on. She got assigned to be a guardian to a Badica girl she became friendly with during her time at the Academy.

Now, I felt like Mason was opening a new chapter of my life. Being a mother was terrifying, but I loved my children with all my heart. I was excited to be a grandmother.

"Thank you Mase," I whispered to him. "Thank you!"

He patted my back and chuckled. "How do you think Dad is going to take it?" He asked me.

I smiled. "He has all that free time, you'll be lucky if he leaves you two alone," I told him amused.

"You'll have a bunch of free time too though," he pointed out. "The baby is due two weeks before you retire."

I smiled at him. "Now I can look forward to retirement," I said with a grin.

He smiled at me with his infectious smile.

"Let's go tell dad," I told him with a huge grin.

Mason nodded to me and followed me to mine and Dimitri's apartment.

We walked in. "Comrade," I called, putting my keys down on the coffee table in the lobby.

"In here," he called. I entered the family room to see Dimitri lounging on the couch reading a western. That's usually where I found him when I got home from work. Not that he doesn't deserve that free time. He spends his morning teaching classes to Moroi who want to learn self-defense at the Court gym. A couple years ago, Lissa made it mandatory for Moroi students to learn self-defense as part of gym curriculum at Academies across the world. She also gave adult Moroi the opportunity to sign up for classes. It was a lot more popular than she thought it would be. After Dimitri retired, he took up extra classes so that he would have something to do and so that more moroi could take classes.

When we walked in the family room, Dimitri looked up surprised. "Hi Mason," Dimitri said with a small smile. "What brings you here?"

"Dad, I have some really good news," he told him. Dimitri looked at him curiously. "Rhea's pregnant!"

Dimitri's face lit up with a huge smile.

With that smile, I was pushed forward seven months, to the present. The strigoi were surrounding me. The memories that just passed had literally flown by, but it seemed like they had gone by slowly, giving me the chance to reflect on my life.

I realized that I had lived a good, long life. I was sad that I was never going to get to know my granddaughter, but I knew I had lived my life in the time allotted to me.

I was happy with my life. I got to spend 47 years with the love of my life. We adopted two amazing children, and soon we were going to have a granddaughter.

So as the Strigoi's teeth neared my skin, I didn't feel fear. It was my time to go. The world of the dead could finally take me.


	27. Dimitri

Dimitri's POV

The weeks that came after Rose's death were the longest in my life. I saw her in everything. She was in the steam that clouded the mirror after a long shower. She was in the smell of my coffee in the morning. She was in the wind that made the trees sway. She was in every blade of grass. She was in every tick of the clock that proved another second had passed.

She was in our daughter's smile. She may not be our biological daughter, but she was our child. Rose was in our granddaughter's laughter. The granddaughter, she never got to meet. She was in the sound of a fork hitting a plate. She was in the soft flame of a candle that illuminated a room. She was in the sound of crunching leaves and in the flowing river.

She was in the soft fabric of the comforter that kept me safe at night. She was in sun that shone so brightly, proving there was hope for a better day. She was in the twinkling stars at night. Even though she was gone, I knew she was all around me.

Every second that passed felt like a decade. I couldn't process that she was gone. I would never hear her soft laughter, the laughter of an angel. I would never see the mischievous twinkle in her eye when she got in trouble with Hans. I would never hold her and kiss her again.

I may be 71 years old, but Rose still affects me the same way she did all those years ago at St. Vladimir's.

For 47 years, I woke up with my arms around the most beautiful woman in the world. For 47 years, I got to hear the voice of an angel and I knew that everything would be okay. For 47 years, I got to see the love of my life grow as a person and as a guardian. It's hard to grasp that I'm never going to see her smile again, never going to hear her laugh, never going to feel her love. I felt empty.

My student was gone. My best friend was gone. My soul mate was gone. My other half was gone. My love was gone. My reason for living was gone. And I knew it was time for me to join her.

I went to visit her grave. I placed my flowers by her name.

Rosemarie Hathaway

March 21rd 1990-Febrauary 28th 2055

Eternal Service

Вечный службы

Eternal de servicii

Loving wife, mother, and friend. Always in our hearts

It was a standard guardian tombstone with 'Eternal Service' written in English, Romanian, and Russian. The last part was something special we added. It's usually not allowed, but we pulled some strings. We needed people to see she was more than just a guardian. Much, much more.

I cried in front of her grave for a long time. The only peace I got was knowing that she died how she wanted to – fighting strigoi. When I had calmed down, I wiped away the last of my tears. "I love you. I'll see you soon," I promised her before I walked away.

I wasn't going to go out of this world without a bang. I grabbed my stake and wandered outside the wards of Court. I didn't have Rose's advantage when it came to feeling Strigoi, but I knew there were always Strigoi waiting for a moroi or dhampir to get outside of the wards. It was the middle of the night and I knew they were out there. I was just on the edge of the wards. Enough so that someone will be able to discover my body.

My suspicions were confirmed when no less than six Strigoi surrounded me. I smiled as they attacked. I was going to take some of them with me. My death was going to mean that less Strigoi were walking this world. I staked one Strigoi before he knew what happened. Another tried to punch me, but I dodged it and scraped my stake against their stomach. That distracted them enough for me to plunge it into their heart. There were still four Strigoi left and I was exhausted. My exhaustion made me sloppy. A Strigoi got through my defenses and kicked me hard in the stomach. I was propelled backwards. When no Strigoi came after me, I realized I was safe behind the wards.

I did all that I could do. I closed my eyes and welcomed the darkness with a smile. This was the end. It was my time to go.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
